Harry Daniels and the Order of Shadows Bk 2
by blade625
Summary: Sequel to Harry Daniels and the Order of Shadows. Harry is back for his second year in Britain. He's has Hermione and a few more friends to help him deal with Dumbledore and his former family
1. Chapter 1

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

Chapter 1

It was nearly the last week of July in Crawley. It was in the middle of the day and all the children were outside playing in the water or at the park. All except one Hermione Granger. She was sitting in her family's library reading. Well, she wasn't really reading so much as just looking at the words, waiting for the moment when she could see her best friend, Harry Daniels, again. She knew he would be back today, he had said as much the last time they talked, the previous night.

Harry Daniels stepped into a shadow in Hong Kong after just saying good by to Miku and her family. He sent a shadow message to his best friend, Hermione, telling her he would be arriving in her back yard any moment. Sure enough, he exited the shadow from a tree in her back yard, only to be tackled by a girl-shaped missile with bushy brown hair.

He laughed, "Hey Hermione. It's good to see you too."

Hermione just hugged him tighter and smiled into his neck. She finally had her Harry back and she didn't want to let him go.

Harry smiled and inhaled the scent of her hair, "It's really good to see you Mione. I missed you more than I thought possible. Even though we talked every night."

Hermione smiled and pulled back a bit, "I missed you too. I don't have any other friends around here to spend time with. All the kids around here made fun of me in normal school for always being smart and now they think that I go to a special school for geniuses and make fun of me even more."

Harry rubbed her back in small circles, "What did I say about other people who do that?"

Hermione smiled shyly, "Don't worry about what idiots think, only what your friends think."

Harry smirked, "That's right. And you already know what I think."

With that, he kissed her lightly on the lips and stood up, helping her up as well.

He continued, "Let's go inside. It's to hot out. Plus I have a feeling that you will want to know what I've been up to, besides visiting friends."

Hermione smiled, took his hand in hers and let him inside, "You got that right. You've been gone for a month."

Harry smiled and they walked inside. She led him up to the room the Granger family had designated as "his" while he was there. At the time, they were the only ones home, the adult Grangers were still at their Dental Surgery. Harry pulled out his shrunken down trunk and started to pull out the clothes, that he wouldn't be taking with him on their trip and put them in the dresser. As he did, he talked about his summer so far.

"It was fun, like I said. Miku and I always seemed to be doing something. Either training or just walking around the city. There were a few kids that I know, they were the ones that created those spells I was telling you about, the ones from Star Wars and Star Trek. Anyway, when Miku had other things to do, I hung out with them. They came up with a few other spells, but mostly they spent the school year, doing school work and projects. They don't have all the training that I do, so they actually have to pay attention in class." he stopped as they laughed.

He continued, "When I wasn't with Miku or her brother, I was with them coming up with ideas for different spells. We came up with a new game. You know 'Ping Pong'?" at her nod he continued, "Well, we used a special shield spell, that repels a spell directed at it, to fling a ball of condensed magic, usually just a simple spell like a tickling charm just rolled up into a ball, at each other. We use the shield to protect ourselves. They said they got the idea from 'Dodge Ball'. I looked at it as a fun game but also a great way to test your reflexes."

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, it sound like fun, maybe we'll be able to play it at Hogwarts."

Harry chuckled, "I doubt it, Dumbles would have a fit if he saw us flinging magic at each other and Snape would probably take points."

Hermione thought about it and nodded, "You're probably right. Still, can't hurt to try. we'll just let Flitwick know and maybe even get him to watch us."

Harry nodded, "Maybe, if we put it off as a way to train for duels. I think he would like that because he is a former dueling champion."

Hermione responded, "I didn't know that."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, last summer Tom told me. He said that Flitwick even beat Dumbles at one time. I think that it was do to his speed, the old man might have power, but speed and good reflexes matter just as much, if not more so."

Hermione nodded her agreement. They spent the rest of the day just visiting and spending time together outside by the Granger's pool. That evening, the adult Grangers came home from their Surgery, surprised to see that Harry and Hermione had made dinner for them; home-made, single dish pizzas, Veggie for Emma and Hermione, Pepperoni for Dan and Pepperoni, Sausage and Bell pepper for Harry.

Harry explained, after Emmaline Granger gave him a welcoming hug, "Well, I appreciate that you are allowing me to stay here for the rest of the summer and I wanted to show it."

Daniel and Emma Granger smiled and assured him that it was no trouble.

After dinner, they all go into the sitting room and Harry tells the Grangers about how he's been for the last month. He tells them about the game that he and his small group of friends came up with, about all the things he did with Miku and her family, like seeing the Great Wall and going to amusement parks. He told them about going to visit Jammel in India, where he is currently living and how he and Jammel spent 3 days camping in the Himalayas. He told them about the last part of his trip, the week he spent in Japan with Mr. Sho, catching up on his Potions skills.

He said, "He wasn't happy that I hadn't done much, but understood why. He said that Snape is the type of Potions Master that should strictly be in research. He shouldn't teach the art because he can't teach to save his life." he and Hermione laughed, "I explained that I 'De-clawed' him 2 weeks into the school year. I explained why I did it and he laughed. He later said that he shouldn't even be the head of Slytherin because the way he acts towards everyone is not cunning in the least. He insults everyone he meets and Slytherins are suppose to be cunning and grow possible alliances with others that may pay off in the future. He doesn't do any of that. He relies strictly on Dumbles to do everything for him. Though that is probably from habit, Dumbles got Snape out of having a trial after Halloween in 1981."

Emma asked, "Why was he suppose to have a trial?"

Harry shrugged, "Because he was a Death Eater."

Harry and Hermione had told her parents about the war with Voldemort, so they both knew what Death Eaters were. They were left gaping.

After a few seconds of digesting that bit of news, Dan exploded, "And they let him teach children?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, Dumbledore claimed that Snape played spy for him and so should be cleared of all charges and not even have a trial. The sheep of magical Britain agreed because Dumbledore said it and he can't be wrong can he?" he finished sarcastically.

When Dan and Emma looked worriedly at each other and Hermione, Harry was quick to point out, "You don't have to worry. Hermione not only has my family's protection, but she also has enough protective enchantments on some of the things I gave her that not even Dumbles, Voldemort and Snape could touch her before she could fight back and if she did, she could very easily hold her own until I got there. You don't have to worry. I taught him early last year not to irritate me, he ended up with a broken wrist, a concussion and a severely bruised ego but he got the message. Now he settles for a steady, hateful glare and unfair grading in his class."

Emma said, "How does he get away with unfair grading?"

Hermione said, "Because he's Dumbledore's lackey. He gets away with anything under Dumbledore. The only reason that he was punished last year was because Harry went to the _Daily Prophet_ with the story that parents are wasting their money on Potions supplies, text books and paying for the class because their children weren't learning. Even then, Dumbledore just put him on probation, he couldn't give or take house points and detentions without them being reviewed by the offending student's head of house. He still didn't teach. He just stopped vanishing Harry's potions. Even then, he only did that because Harry went to McGonagall for a reimbursement for what Snape had wasted, providing memories to show that his potions were at the correct stage and made correctly." at their disbelieving looks Hermione said, "Don't worry though, even with our terrible Potions grades, Harry's more than mine, we are still tied for first place in our year."

Harry chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll fix that this year."

He wouldn't say anything else on the matter, he just smirked evilly and Hermione knew it would be bad for Snape. They spent the rest of the night planning what they were going to do on their 2 week vacation. Harry explained that he would take them to the U.S. for 1 week, then to Southern France for the last week.

"Though, while we're in the U.S., Hermione and I will be learning new things. We'll be using the Time Chamber that they have in Massachusetts."

Hermione smiled brightly, "What will we be learning? How long will we be there for, really? Who will be teaching us?"

Harry chuckled at her excitement, "We will be learning Transfiguration, Charms, more Mind Magic, Dueling techniques, Potions, Rituals and a bit about Technomancy. We'll spend a total of 2 months there, with the Time Chamber and we will have different teachers for everything, some from the Mages and some from the magical section of M.I.T. I don't know how we'll do it yet, but that's the overall plan."

Dan and Emma were amazed at what magic could do. After talking for a bit, it was decided that Harry and Hermione would use a Time Turner when they first got there to go back a week. During the week they are there, they would use the Time Chamber to spend 2 months training with various teachers. Then, when they arrived "again", they would spend the whole week with the adult Grangers. The adult Grangers were happy that they would get to spend the whole week with both kids and Hermione was happy that she would get to train with Harry and get to spend time with her parents. Harry also mentioned that he and Hermione would be gone for one day to go to the ICW, but it would just be that day. Harry explained about portkeys and they agreed that they would take portkeys to travel to different places in the U.S.

They spent that night packing. The Grangers had known that they would be going since Harry brought it up 2 weeks into summer. The Grangers had asked him when they should take off and he told them about his plans. Harry had his things already in his trunk so he just spent his time in Hermione's room and they talked as she packed. With magic, she was done fairly quickly. After she was done, they talked about the up coming year at Hogwarts and how they hoped it would be better than the previous year. Not long after, they headed to her parent's room to see if they could help speed things along. The adult Grangers quickly agreed and in 10 minutes, all 4 occupants of the house were packed and ready to go to the U.S. in the morning.

They went to bed around 10 that night in order to get an early start on the day. In the morning, when they woke up, they had a nice breakfast with Harry's "famous" breakfast of Ham and Potato Omelets. Afterwards, Harry and Hermione shrunk all their luggage and put it in their pockets. Harry cast a Notice-Me-Not charm on the house so the neighbors wouldn't notice that a car didn't come pick them up or that they didn't take a car to the airport. Then, Harry took Dan's arm in a tight grip as Hermione did the same with her mothers and they both shadow walked to a dark alley next to Gringotts bank in Diagon Alley. From there they made their way inside and were immediately helped by a teller.

They were shown into the Director of Gringotts and War Chief of the Goblin Nation's office. Upon seeing him, Harry bowed and gave the appropriate greeting, followed by the Grangers. Ragnok responded in kind.

Harry smiled, close-mouthed and said, "How has profits been?"

Ragnok responded, "Profits are up at the moment. How can I help you today?"

Harry said, "We would like to make use of the Goblin passageway between banks. I understand that goblins rarely allow customers to use them, but we are willing to pay premium rates. One time for between here and the U.S., the Massachusetts branch, then from the New York branch to France, the Marseilles branch and then back."

Ragnok's eyes lit up at that statement, then pressed a rune on his desk.

A few minutes later a goblin came in the office and bowed to Ragnok, "Yes, Director?"

Ragnok said, "Get me the paperwork to send these 4 through the passageway."

The goblin's eyes widen slightly but nods and walks out of the room.

Ragnok said, "It will be G100 per person per trip through the passageway."

Harry nodded, he would make the amount he was spending and more back in a few days just on interest on just one of their accounts. The goblin came back in and gave Ragnok the paperwork. He quickly filled everything out, authorizing both trips, then handed Harry the paperwork they would need.

Harry nodded his thanks, then Ragnok said, "You should know, my sources found that Dumbledore tried to have Article 4 Subsection 3 taken out of the Hogwarts' charter. The governors denied the request, though, the leader of those opposing his request was led by Augusta Longbottom."

Harry smiled, "Thank you for letting me know. It just means that I will have something else to use to get Dumbles and the Potters off my back if I need it."

Ragnok nodded and Harry and the Grangers bowed and left his office. The same goblin that gave the paperwork to Ragnok led them deep into the bowels of the bank, though they were forced to walk because the carts did not go where they need to go. After about 10 minutes, they came to a chamber that had a simple arch in the middle of it. The goblin told them to walk through it and they would be met by goblins from the American branch of Gringotts. They bowed and thanked the goblin for his time and stepped through.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

Chapter 2

They step through the archway and find themselves in a much different room. It is much more modern in it's look. A goblin walked into the room and asked them to follow him. They followed him out into a much smaller lobby than the one in London.

Dan asked, "Why is it that the Gringotts in London is so much larger?"

The goblin answered, "That is because our main branch is in London also because here, we take much more advantage of the American Mages and the technomancy that they and M.I.T. produce. It allows us to conserve space and still do all that we need to. In England the Ministry doesn't allow us to use any of it, because the purebloods in charge do not like that fact that we blend mundane and magical world together. Here, we use computers that are shielded against magic to conduct our business and the actual gold is stored in numbered trunks in a room that is fidelius protected. The trunks that have personal effects, social security trunks is what we call them, are kept in a separate room that is warded so that anyone entering will not remember where it is when they leave. Also here, we use galleons as well as mundane currency, we just store both in the trunks for each customer."

The Grangers were more than impressed with the different way that the magical world in the U.S. worked.

They went to a check in desk and got the proper documents that would answer any questions if asked and got their passports stamped. Harry then requested a portkey to Massachusetts, the American Mage visiting quarters. They were given one and they portkey straight from the bank.

When they arrived, they immediately went to their rooms and got everything set for themselves, then took a potion to acclimate them to the time difference. Almost immediately they were tired, Harry knew it worked then because it was still just 1 o'clock in the morning. They once again got into bed and went right to sleep. Even Harry and Hermione slept a normal amount of time so that the potion could do it's work.

In the morning they met and have breakfast brought up to their rooms. At 8:50 am, after their meal, Hermione and Harry got their things together and they all headed down to the lobby. They arrived and are met by a middle aged woman with brown hair that had a few strands of grey mixed in and she had deep blue eyes and Harry smiled, walked up to her and hugged her.

"Ms. Cerina, I didn't know you would be here. It's so good to see you!"

She smiled and pats his back, "It's good to see you too Harry."

Harry looked back at the Grangers and said, "Let me introduce Dr.s Daniel and Emmaline Granger and their beautiful daughter and my best friend, Hermione Granger."

Hermione blushed and shook her hand.

Ms. Cerina asked, "Well, I already know Hermione." Harry smiled sheepishly, "What type of doctors are you, doctors?"

Dan said, "Dentists. We have our own dental surgery in Central London and please, call us Dan and Emma."

Ms. Cerina smiled, "only if you call me Anna, Erianna is so bothersome." she laughed.

Harry said, "What are you doing here? I thought you would be on vacation, you always take it around this time of year."

Anna smiled, "Well, I'm here to teach you of course. You didn't think that I would let anyone else teach one of my best students did you?"

Harry smiled and blushed, "Hermione's better. She already had her memories sorted and organize before we met. I taught her on the train to build walls and then the battle-based version."

Anna nodded, "Yes, you told me that already, I'll take care of it." she looked at her watch, "Well it's 9:15, you should be arriving in 5 minutes so we should go."

With that, she handed Harry a Time Turner and he wrapped it around Hermione after she hugged her parents goodbye, Harry did the same since they wouldn't see them for 2 months. After that, Harry turned the hour glass 1 time, with that they disappeared right before Dan and Emma's eyes.

Not two minutes later, the same two pre-teens came walking out of a hallway across from the lobby.

X0X0X0X0X0

Harry and Hermione watched as time rushed backwards and then suddenly, it stopped and they were standing in a room that was bereft of anything in it except a wall of Time Turners. Harry took the chain off of them and set the Time Turner on the small table in front of the other turners and led Hermione out of the room. When they exited it, Hermione turned to see a sign on the door, "Time Room".

She followed Harry down a hallway and they entered another office, "Time Registration".

Walking up to the front desk, Harry told the lady standing behind it, "Hey Sarah, we arrive back in the Lobby of the Visiting quarters a week from today at 9:20am. Ms. Cerina is there waiting for us."

The lady, Sarah, nodded, "Thanks Harry. Nice to see you again. Who's your friend?"

Harry smiled at Hermione, "This is Hermione Granger, my best friend. We met on the Hogwarts Express. She'll be training with me as well."

Sarah smiled warmly at Hermione, "It's nice to meet you Hermione. Make sure he doesn't work so hard. Sometimes he works so hard he forgets to have fun."

Hermione smiled and nodded. Sarah directed them to Ms. Cerina's office and they entered after knocking.

Erianna looked up as they enter and she smiled, "It's nice to see you again Harry."

Harry smiled, "You too, although, I just left you in the lobby so it hasn't been that long."

Anna smiled, "So, who's your friend?"

Harry smiled at Hermione, "This is Hermione Granger, she's my best friend."

She smiles at Hermione and asks, "So, what has he taught you?"

Hermione said, "Well, he taught me basic Occlumency and the battle-based he learned from you."

Anna nodded, then turned to Harry, "How did you teach her?"

Harry answered, "I used the mind dump."

Anna nodded, "That's what I thought, there are some differences, minor ones, between learning that way and being taught over time. I'll fix that right up."

Hermione asked, "What type of differences?"

She answered, "Oh little ones, things like some defenses not being kept up as well and they start to deteriorate over time if their not noticed. Some other small things dealing with a new branch of Mind Magics that I will be teaching you, or for me, taught you." she turned to Harry, "Did they give you any problems?"

Harry shrugged, "Not really, they tried to get in quite a few times but I blocked them every time. Although those were just light brushes, Snape tried a full force attack and at the time, I was slightly angry and so I let him in and led him into one of my traps. He was petrified for the duration of Christmas break."

Anna scowled at the thought of someone using Legilimency on a child without their knowledge. She explained what they would be doing for the following two months.

"You will both go into the Time Chamber each day and spend a week and 2 days in it. After that time is done, you will come out and sleep for the night. Then repeat it the following day. This way, by the time you are done, you will have just over 2 months of training done when you catch back up with your future selves. The first time will be with me, I will be teaching you more mind magics, specifically the telepathy based form of Legilimency. It can't be blocked, but requires much more concentration to do. It will let you hear the thoughts of everyone around you, with training, you will be able to tune out all the thoughts and focus on just one person's train of thought. The following 9 day interval will be with Mr. Roberts. He is a trainer in dueling tactics with the Mages. His specialty is combining martial arts with dueling and improvising with techniques from different cultures. The 3rd 9 day period will be with Mr. Smith. He is in the Transfiguration Division with the Mages. The 4th 9 day period will be with Mrs. Michaels, from the Charms Department at M.I.T. The following time will be with Mr. Curtis from the Potions Division in the Mages and Mr. Richards from the Potions Department at M.I.T. The 6th time will be with Mr. Doe, from the Rituals Division with the Mages. He will teach you about rituals and have you perform a few on yourselves. The final 9 day interval with be with Mr. Carter. He is the the deputy researcher in the Technomancy Division in the Mages. He will teach you the basics of that particular branch of magic. He will also be providing a pair of free, upgraded contacts for both of you."

Hermione was giddy with excitement at what she was going to learn. Harry was happy that he would be learning again, life at Hogwarts got slightly boring having learned everything. Hopefully Ms. Cerina might have a few suggestions about that when their training is over.

They followed the middle aged woman to a set of room across from each other and got settled in before following her back to a set of doors leading to a central room that seemed to be completely circular. Anna had them drink a few potions, "to stop you from aging prematurely" she explained.

Once that was done, they entered the doors and found themselves in a vast room. There seemed to be nearly 30 rooms! Harry led a gaping Hermione to a set of rooms next to each other with an adjoining door and they put their things away. Almost immediately Ms. Cerina started their training. She had them go into a deep state of meditation and enter their mindscapes. She entered Harry's mindscape first and asked if she could bring Hermione into his, to which Harry answered "yes". Once there, she used Harry's mindscape to show Hermione, in fine detail how he had his set up, with Harry helping whenever he was asked to explain how he did something or why. After a while, they entered Hermione's mindscape and did the same things. Anna also showed Hermione the minute differences between the two ways they learned the mind magics.

After a while, she helped Hermione fix up the small discrepancies and had her add different layers of defense, eventually, her mindscape had the same first set of defenses that Harry's had. After they were done, she had them come back out of their mindscapes and they ate. After their meal Ms. Cerina started telling them about the different type of Legilimency, known as telepathy.

"Just like the Battle-based Occlumency, this is several orders of magnitude harder to learn. However, knowing the battle-based occlumency will make things easier. At first it will be very uncomfortable for you. It will feel like you are letting down your defenses, which in a way you are. You lessen your awareness of a mental attack. Over time this feeling will lesson as you become accustomed to feeling an attack."

She took a sip of water and continued, "What makes this more difficult is that, by learning Occlumency, it becomes second nature to always pay attention to your mental defenses, but in order to do this, you must stop that. What you are doing is a combination of using non-verbal legilimency and casting out with your mage sense, allowing you to 'feel' the magic around you. By combining this with legilimency, you effectively reach out with your mind and 'touch' other minds, but in a way that isn't affected by occlumency. You can't dive into a person's mind, but you can pick up surface thoughts and memories that are still very fresh or thought of often and even dreams of those people that are asleep at the time."

From there, they spent the rest of their 9 days learning and perfecting the art of "Telepathy". At first it was uncomfortable, like Ms. Cerina had warned them. But eventually they got the hang of it. They learned that by allowing each other into their mindscapes, they created an opening for each other, only for each other, to send thoughts to, using the telepathy or the type of legilimency that required eye contact. Though they didn't really even need the telepathy when looking at each other, they were getting to know each other so well that they could talk without saying anything, mental or not.

Thus they spent the following 2 months training in various fields of magic. They learned better ways to combine martial arts with dueling and also different forms of dueling from different parts of the world. Though after learning them all, they both decided to make their own, combining different forms they liked from all over. They learned how to perform more difficult conjurations and transfiguration techniques, they focused mainly on speed with conjuring and learned to think outside the box for transfiguration, both with wands and without. They were also taught ways to incorporate both into dueling, conjuration for material and transfiguration for surprising their opponents. They combined what they learned in transfiguration with what they learned in charms. They learned to think of different ways to charm objects with different effects. They learned more about potions, both Mr. Curtis and Richards were understanding when they heard who was teaching them at Hogwarts. They taught them about the different properties of potions ingredients and how to know when to improvise and when not to. They also helped the two children brew the potion that Shadow had given them. Mr. Curtis had brought the right animal parts and ingredients and they brewed it successfully.

It had to take a day to cool before it could be consumed, so on the seventh day, they drank it first thing in the morning. Mr. Richards was in the know about the order, so he knew that he couldn't reveal what the potion did. It took them nearly until "nightfall" to recover from the effects of the potion, but they immediately noticed the changes. They felt stronger and quicker, they felt the increase in their cores, they tried out a few fire and ice spells and both seemed much more powerful and when Mr. Curtis and Richards cast the same spells at them, it took longer for Harry and Hermione to feel the effects. It took them a while to get the hang of traveling by phoenix fire, but they would work on it over the next few days. They immediately noticed that they seemed to take apart problems in their heads quicker than they realize and when they saw her again, Ms. Cerina would test the changes in their Occlumency. Mr. Curtis tested their spell resistance by firing stunners at them, it took 5 normal powered stunners to take them down and they had to be cast and hit them right after another, if there was a pause in between hits, the spells' effect would dissipate. Finally, they tested their enhanced healing by cutting themselves on their arms, they were completely healed with in 20 minutes. Harry wanted to test broken bones but Mr. Curtis told him that those who had already had the potion had reported that bones heal within 1 hour of the break. While a spell would fix a bone in a minute, having that ability was very reassuring.

The next period that they spent in training was spent learning about rituals. Their teacher, Mr. Doe, explained to them about the false belief that the British magical community had about rituals. He gave many examples of beneficial rituals. He also explained that when doing rituals, one needed to do them in an area or room that was completely free of foreign magic because it could interfere with the magic of the ritual. They also needed to perform the ritual in "magic free" clothing for the same reason.

As a part of their training, both Harry and Hermione performed basic rituals by themselves. Together, they performed a ritual to share Harry's metamorph abilities with Hermione. Afterwards, she had the same abilities as Harry. She could change her appearance at will, to look like anyone she has seen before. If people ask her how she got her hair wavy instead of the bushy curls she was known for, then she would just use the excuse that she found spells and hair care products in the U.S. over the summer.

When she was done and re-styled her hair, Harry said, "Damn, now I'll have to keep the other guys away from you."

To which Hermione smiled brightly at him and kissed him, "Don't worry. I like you and nobody will change that. You saw me as beautiful before this so that's what matters."

They also performed a ritual that shared Harry's ability for parseltongue, with Hermione. He admitted that he had the ability and that his brother most likely had it as well. Twins usually had similar abilities like that, metamorphmagi were the exception. When she asked, he assured her that he didn't get it from whatever happened that Halloween. Everything dealing with that night was removed from him when he first joined the Order and had the odd parasitical magic removed. Hermione assured him that she wouldn't reveal the ability to anyone in Britain. They agreed not to reveal any of the abilities in Britain, the metamorph powers would come in handy if they ever need them.

After the exciting 9 day period where they got ritualistic enhancements, they spent their time learning the basics of technomancy, even Harry didn't know much about the field. They learned to charm technology to work around areas with high levels of magic, they even got a look at new technology being worked on by the American government, the Mages had allowed it, and work being done at M.I.T. both the mundane section and magical. In the end, Mr. Carter gave them each a pair of contacts. He explained that they would allow the two to see through invisibility cloaks and spells, and through Notice-Me-Not fields, they would provide mage sight, if they didn't want to have the telltale signs of slightly glowing eyes that natural mage sight caused. The contacts would also have night, thermal and x-ray vision, auto tint, they would provide protection from all magic directed at their eyes and finally, a zoom function that allowed them to see up to 50 feet away. Needless to say, they were speechless when Mr. Carter gave them the set. Before they put the contacts in, the technomancer also told them that the contacts would never need to come out.

For the last 2 days of that 9 day period, the two students got used to using the contacts. They also put specialized shadow charms on them, giving them the ability to see into shadows and see anyone travelling in the shadows.

Finally the day that they would meet back up with the elder Grangers arrived. They met with Ms. Cerina at 8:30am and she quickly went through and checked their new mental capabilities and nodded her approval. They could easily deflect both Snape, Dumbledore and another legilimencer at the same time. Ms. Cerina left to meet themselves and the adult Grangers and Harry and Hermione had breakfast while they waited.

At about 9:15am, they were told by a man from the Time Travel department that they needed to go to the lobby. They nodded their thanks and got up and headed that way. As soon as they walked into the lobby, they saw themselves disappear with the Time Turner and made their way over to the stunned adult Grangers. Upon seeing them, Hermione ran over to them and hugged both of them, she had grown slightly due to one of the rituals they performed to get them to the perfect levels of health, both physically and magically. Her hair was much more tame as well, instead of the "bushy mess" as Hermione referred to it, it now fell in lazy curls, which she decided would be her new "look". Her parents barely recognized her.

She smiled brightly at them, "Oh, mum, dad I learned so much! We learned new mind magic, transfiguration, charms, we learned the way we are suppose to, about Potions. We learned about different cultures and their ways of dueling and we learned so much about how to make technology and magic work together. Towards the end we even did different rituals and learned about even more. It was so much fun! And all of our teachers gave us topics to talk about and debate about if we get bored at Hogwarts."

Harry and Anna smiled at her enthusiasm. The Granger parents were still trying to get their minds around the fact that they just saw their daughter and her friend disappear with a necklace and then suddenly come out from a hallway across the lobby, having lived an extra 2 months. Ms. Cerina left them after talking a bit more and explaining some of their training to the adult Grangers. They spent the rest of the day walking around the town and seeing the historical sights, both magical and mundane. There was so much to see in Salem Massachusetts.

The rest of their week in the States was spent portkeying to different places around the country; they went to Disney world, both the mundane and magical sides, Universal Studios in California along with the Hollywood boardwalk. They spent some time in D.C. and got to see the differences in the government there as opposed to their own Ministry in Britain.

On that Thursday, while the adult Grangers were in Wyoming, Hermione accompanied Harry to a ICW meeting to discuss the spell that he created almost a year previous. He had the meeting scheduled so that he didn't have to find a out of school without raising suspicion. The previous month, he spent seeing his friends in other countries. Now that he was free, they wanted to see him. The adult Grangers knew about the meeting and agreed to allow the kids to go, they would spend the day together seeing the different areas in Yellowstone.

The morning started out with them using their skills as metamorphmagi to change their identities. They changed into older versions of themselves, with minor changes. Hermione's hair was completely straight with blond highlights, her eyes were an icy blue, her facial structure was slightly more angled and regal looking and she stood at 5'8. Harry's hair was longer, down to his neck, he had a goatee, his eyes were a deep violet, his facial structure was angled as well, also giving him a more regal look and his new height was 6'3. From their hotel room, they shadow walked to the meeting that was taking place in Geneva.

When they got there, they checked in, Hermione as Miranda Grey and Harry as Alexander Shadow. Hermione was there as Harry's assistant, to help him explain and demonstrate the spell. They weren't presenting until towards the evening, but had to be there they whole time so they both brought books, Harry a book on ancient runes written by Rowena Ravenclaw but charmed to look like advanced arithmancy, Hermione, though, had a book that really was on advanced arithmancy, written by Emily Trisfoum. They tuned out most of the day's business as they sat in the back of the room. Hermione was interested in the proceedings at first, then she got bored and simply pulled out her book and tuned the meeting out.

When they stopped for a lunch break, they made their way to the cafeteria to eat with each other. Along the way, they met up with Dumbledore, whom they had been avoiding all day. They knew he would want to talk about Harry and how they knew him.

"Mr. Shadow, Ms. Grey, if I could have a moment of your time?"

Alex sighed, "Sure, but if you don't mind, we're very hungry, could we walk and talk at the same time?"

Dumbledore nodded, "Of course, I'm quite famished myself." the started for the cafeteria again, "So, I heard from one of my students that you know him? I was wondering how that came about?"

Alex shrugged, "You'll have to be more specific, I know lots of people."

Albus answered, "I am speaking of a Harry Potter."

Alex shrugged, "Nope, never heard of him. I know a Harry Daniels, but no Potter."

Albus smiled, "Ah, yes, well his real name is Harry Potter. He goes by Daniels in a childish attempt to get away from his family."

Alex turned to face him and said coldly, "I don't know if we know the same person, but the Harry Daniels is anything BUT childish. He told me that he had a bad experience with his biological family and that they disowned him. So after the disownment, he changed his name to Daniels. I don't know if he is this Harry Potter that you're talking about but the only Harry that I know is Daniels and I would appreciate it if you didn't insult him."

Albus for a moment was taken aback but the coldness of the reply, but pushed onward, "Be that as it may, it was a mistake and his parents are trying to get his disownment and subsequent emancipation overturned so he can return home. I was wondering if you could speak with him."

Alex shook his head, "No, he's told me about that. Even if I believed that crap about it being a mistake, the disownment was permanent. Nobody can reverse it. Also, I know for a fact that he is emancipated in more than one country so you would need to get those countries to revoke his emancipation. To do that, you would need to show that he is incapable of being on his own. Even if that were possible, he wouldn't go back to the Potters, he would go to an orphanage."

Dumbledore was fuming inside, who was this man to explain things that he had no idea or business knowing about? He was Albus Dumbledore, the defeater of Grindlewald, Supreme Mugwump, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Headmaster of Hogwarts and the Leader of the Light!

He said, "Regardless of that, it is in his best interests to be with his family. But if you wont help with that, then could you tell me where and how you two met?"

Alex said, "I don't understand your fascination with him. We saw him, along with his friend, Miss Granger and her parents not to long ago in America, they seemed find to us. They also told us about your constant attempts to get him into a position to manipulate him to your wants. Let me be clear Albus, we" he motioned to Miranda. "don't particularly care for you. Harry told us why he left in the first place. We think it's deplorable that you were willing to take his magic away from him when he had nothing else left to make him happy." Dumbledore was gobsmacked, "As to where we met him, I'll let Miranda answer that."

Miranda pinned the old man to the wall with her icy stare, "We met him a few years ago, we were asked to help him with some arithmancy work and found that he already had the basics down. The mutual friendship and respect grew from there, and it wasn't even that of an adult and child, it was a friendship between two adults. He hasn't been a child for many years, he was forced to grow up much faster than most because his _parents_," she sneered, "chose not to take care of him and he had to learn to do it himself. Now, if you don't mind, we would like to eat. Good Day, Supreme Mugwump."

They left and Dumbledore was left gawking in the hallway. He had just asked a few questions? How had everything gone wrong? He just wanted to know more about Harry and maybe get the adults he trusts to push him back to the Potters. It was for his own good after all.

Alex and Miranda ate their lunch with each other and then made their way back tot he main room to listen to more problems in other countries. So far, from what little they had payed attention to, France had had a minor confrontation between a dark witch and a colony of Veela, but it was resolved before anything major had happened and in Switzerland had a small disagreement between the dwarves and goblins but it worked itself out with minimal governmental involvment. They brought out their books just as Germany started their report and business.

Another 3 hours passed, all the while Alex and Miranda continued to read from their respective books, by this time, Alex had already finished his first and was now reading another book on Goblin runes, while Miranda was now reading a book on advanced transfiguration spells and breaking them down to remake them.

Finally, just as Canada finished up, Dumbledore said, "And now, we have two guests, Mr. Alexander Shadow and Ms. Miranda Grey. They are here, after many months of requests, to show us and explain the theory behind Mr. Shadow's spell, nicknamed 'The Black Hole'."

During the clapping afterward, Alex and Miranda stood and made their way down to the main floor.

Alex said, "Thank you for having us here, I apologize for not being available sooner, I was in a remote part of South Africa for the better part of last year, learning from a Shaman and helping protect his small village from raiders and large animals. Miranda was in a remote part of Chile helping with archaeologists uncover more about the ancient Mayan magicals."

Dumbledore asked, "Is this what your professions are?"

Miranda shook her head, "No, we have enough money from our families to live quite comfortably, we just do things like that in our spare time and because we can. We're freelancers, we are hired on as outside contractors and help where we can. We work for a small percentage of the overall cut and only ask that we are not mentioned, we like our anonymity."

Most of the representatives nodded in understanding, Dumbledore asked, "May I ask why?"

Alex shrugged, "We just do. We don't like attention, we just do what we do because we can and want to, not for the recognition. Most of the time, we just spend traveling and spending time with friends. Anyway, on to while we're here." He clapped, "Now the spell that I made, with Miranda's help-"

Miranda interrupted, "Oh, don't even start, you did it all and just had me double check the arithmancy and test the spell."

Alex smiled sheepishly, "Anyway, the spell is quite simple really, the only difficult part is the mental focus. The spell combines apparation and a reversed shield charm."

New Zealand asked, "Could you clarify that for me Alex?"

Alex smiled, "Sure Frank. I came up with the idea when I was watching a friend duel, he was using apparation during the duel and when he used the advanced reverse shield, it kind of just popped into my head. What you do is, start the process of apparation, focus on a point anywhere within your field of view and focus on apparating there. When you are about to turn, cast the spell. It's a modified combination of a reverse shield charm and a space expansion charm, coupled with a switching spell. The apparition field and the other combination of spells creates what looks like a black hole. It swallows the spell, any spell that is directed at it and then appears wherever you focused on apparating to, spitting the spell out."

The American representative asked, "Why didn't you make it so that it just swallowed the spell altogether?"

Alex answered, "I tried that at first. I just created a modified expansion charm and directed the opening at the oncoming spell. The problem that I found is that if the spell isn't released after a limited amount of time, the expanded space becomes unstable and reacts violently, to be more specific, it explodes with the force of a mundane grenade. I found that the more violent the spell, the more explosive the results."

The representatives started muttering to each other before finally Dumbledore said, "Well, you said that the spell is fairly easy, could you demonstrate it for us?"

Alex nodded, he looked at Miranda and she nodded and walked across the floor. After a moment of staring at each other, Miranda let loose with a paint spell that was the color of the killing curse, almost as fast as Miranda, Alex moved his wand in the correct movement and said, "**Lorem Fenestra**". A loud CRACK! was heard and a black hole appeared in front of him and swallowed the sickly green light and then disappeared, a moment later, the hole appeared again and the paint spell hit the wall adjacent to Alex."

Dumbledore said, "Well, that was impressive, however, the wand movement was very slow, was that for our benefit or because it is needed for exact precision?"

Alex shook his head, "Now, I did it that slow for you all to see the exact movements. Let's try again."

He nodded to Miranda and she unleashed seven different spells at him, almost all at once, most, if not all representatives, including Dumbledore though he wouldn't admit it, were impressed with her speed. Alex simply cast the spell once and his wand moved to fast to see as he cast the spell again, only one black hole appeared and swallowed all the spells at once, again depositing them on the adjacent wall.

Alex turned to the representatives, "The more you concentrate, the longer the hole will stay open and swallow more spells, though the limitation is that you can only deposit the spells once, you can't open up multiple holes and have them deposit the spells in different places. You can if you cast the spell multiple times but not if you only cast it once. I know of only one other person besides the two of us that has enough mental concentration to cast multiple spells and direct all of them in different places, though after meeting her, there may be another but I'm not sure. But like I said, the initial spell is relatively easy to learn. I know an 11 year old that cast the spell on his second try. That's Harry Daniels. He told me that he demonstrated it for the school last year and Supreme Mugwump Dumbledore."

The representatives look to Dumbledore for confirmation, he says, "Yes. He did. Harry Potter is a fairly successful first year at Hogwarts."

Alex interrupted, "Excuse me Supreme Mugwump, his name is Harry Daniels, I believe he has had that conversation with you many times last school year and we had the same conversation earlier during lunch. He is not a Potter any longer and hasn't been for quite some time. And to say that he is 'fairly successful' would be an understatement. He sent me his scores after he got them, he along with his friend, Miss Hermione Granger were tied for first place in their year with the highest scores in nearly 2 centuries."

The American asked, "You said that there was one other person that could cast multiple black hole spells and direct them, besides you two, who would that be?"

Alex smiled, "That would be Harry Daniels, you remember him, Jack, he was that kid that you were introduced to when you were touring the American Mages base in Massachusetts a few years ago."

The American representative nodded in remembrance, "Ah, now I remember. He was smart. I asked him a few questions about magical theory and he answered them all. He also had a thing for runes didn't he?"

Alex smirked, "Still does, can't get him away from a book on Runes for anything. From what I saw a few weeks ago, he was reading a book on Goblin runes that he got from War Chief Ragnok. His friend Miss Granger is the other person that may be able to control multiple black holes, though I'm not sure, I never saw her cast it, I've just heard good things from Harry."

More mutterings were heard about the comment about Ragnok. A few more questions were asked about the basics of the spell and the testing process. A few more on the arithmancy involved in it's creation, which Miranda answered. After a while the meeting wrapped up, a few people asked Alex to pass on their greetings to Harry and Alex and Miranda found a secluded spot and shadow walked back to their hotel in Wyoming.

They spent their last 2 nights in New York city seeing the sights. Harry and Hermione spent a lot of time in central park, just taking rides in the horse-pulled carriages. On the morning they were to leave for France they got up and packed their things together and had a nice long breakfast. They made their way to the Gringotts branch in the alley next to the Empire State building. They waited in line and when they finally got to the front, Harry bowed to the Goblin teller and then handed him the official papers. The goblin's eyes widened slightly, he closed his station and led them to a similar room they arrived in. They walked through the portal and entered a room in the Gringotts branch in Marseille France.

Once again, they made their way to the front of the bank and had their papers handed to them and their passports stamped, then Harry asked for a portkey to his property on the coast. He was quickly accommodated and they were off to their home for the next 2 weeks. When they arrived, they were met by a pair of house elves, Eddy and Krissy. They made their way to the door and the house elves told Harry that they were all asleep and it was 12:24am, then Krissy gives Harry another Time Turner that the Order had let him use. He wrapped it around the four of them and turned it once.

The adult Grangers were amazed as they watched time in reverse. In a matter of moments, Harry and the Grangers were standing in the exact same spot, just a week in the past, it was mind-boggling for Dan and Emma to know that while they were in France, they are also in America, at the same time. Harry walked forward and opened the door. They were immediately met by the same 2 elves.

Eddy introduced them and Harry told them what to say when they arrive in a week, then hands the Time Turner to Krissy. From there, the 2 elves give the four new arrivals potions to acclimate them to the new time zone. From there, they went straight to their rooms. Harry allowed Dan and Emma to have the master bedroom, they try to protest, but Harry points out that the house is huge, there are 15 empty rooms and all are fairly large. The conceded and Hermione chose the room down the hall from theirs. Harry was right across from Hermione. They un-shrunk their luggage and then promptly fell to bed, asleep before their heads hit the pillow.

In the morning, the elves had breakfast ready for them and woke them up around 10am. They ate the delicious food and Harry explained about house elves to the Grangers.

Hermione interrupted, "So their slaves!"

Harry shakes his head, "No, Hermione. At one time they were just like us, free to do whatever they pleased, though they were completely peaceful, they didn't fight and didn't know how, nor did they want to. Sometime in the middle of the dark ages, a dark lord sprouted up and decided he wanted slaves and figured that they didn't fight back so the elves would do. So he bound their magic with an obscure black magic spell that has been lost in time, and made them subservient. Since that time, their magic has changed. They need to feel needed, just like we need air. Though some families, in Britain mostly, treat them worse than slaves, while some families treat them as part of their family. The Potters have house elves and they were really my only friends while I was there. Their magic morphed over the years and now they need to be bound to a family to keep their magic and with it, their sanity. If an elf is set free, they will be okay for a while, but slowly, over time, they lose their magic and slowly go insane before they eventually die."

He waited for that to sink in, then continued, "Though, if you must know, Eddy and Krissy were bonded to my family before I assumed the head. When I did, I freed them, then bound them to me with a different bond. Ours is a friendship bond. They still get the benefits of having a family while still being able to refuse an order if they absolutely want or need to. Though, I haven't given them an order they've refused yet. Also, because they as still bound to me, they still can't reveal my secrets. I've done this with all my elves. Even Hogwarts has house elves. Now, the Death Eater families, they treat their elves like they are absolute filth. There were rumors that during the war, the senior Death Eaters would have their children practice the curciatus curse on their elves. Until we can get a foothold in the British Ministry, we can't do anything about it though. In most other countries, they have laws that make it illegal to abuse house elves."

Hermione understood but it still sickened her that the British magical community still practiced slavery. At least the way it was in most other places was illegal for people to abuse house elves.

They spent the day exploring the house and the surrounding area. They had a private beach and a path from the house straight to it. The whole beach was warded for privacy and against cold weather, dangerous creatures and dangerous weather conditions on the water. Harry showed the Grangers that he had a month's supply of fresh Gillyweed for all four of them. Hermione was excited at that and quickly explained to her parents, what it was for. They were amazed and it quickly became the first thing they wanted to do. They went back to the house and changed, then made their way back down to the water. Harry went to the shed where the special wet suits were and handed them out along with a supply of Gillyweed for the day, just in case they ran out and needed more. The suits came with communication runes to allow them to talk to each other from far away and an emergency portkey in case of an accident.

They spent the day just relaxing, taking turns underwater with the Gillyweed. Dan and Emma loved it, they would sit out on the beach for a while, then cool off in the water while exploring the reef that was a little ways away from the beach. Harry and Hermione spent nearly the whole day underwater, sometimes swimming with each other and having fun and sometimes they had contests on who could do the most acrobatic tricks under water.

The party of four spent their entire two weeks like this. They rarely left the villa and usually it was just to get a bite to eat and they wanted to give the elves a rest. Halfway through the second week there, they took a convertible and just drove up the coast for the day, stopping every so often just to take pictures and have fun on the beach. It may have been to cold for mundanes but they had the advantage of warming charms. They adult Grangers privately told Harry that this was the most they had seem Hermione smile on one of their vacations that wasn't caused by a museum or historical facts. They thanked him profusely for making this summer one of the most enjoyable for their daughter.

After the 2 weeks were up, they made their way to the Marseille branch of Gringotts and travelled back to Britain, back to their lives. For the adult Grangers, it had been one of the best vacations they had ever been on, the fact that they only had to pay for the fees to get into the amusement parks in America just increased their fun. They had tried to get Harry to let them pay for themselves, but he refused. They thanked Ragnok when they got back to Britain and then had the two kids Shadow Walk them home. They spent the next day, just relaxing and trying to get back into their normal routine. Hermione and Harry received their Hogwarts letters later in the week and decide to go the following week to get supplies.

There was a bit of trouble when Hermione saw that they had all the books written by Glideroy Lockhart on their book list and she got excited. Harry stopped her and told her that Lockhart was a fraud. When she demanded to know why he thought that, Harry gave her examples from the books. He asked her about if there was a spell that could reverse a werewolf transformation and when she responded in the negative, he pointed out that in one of his books, he claimed that there was and that he used it to take care of a werewolf. He went on to tell her that he claims to have fought a transformed werewolf barehanded and won. After he continued to giver her examples from his books and having her refute them herself, she eventually believed him. Then she got angry at herself for being naive enough to believe his books, Lockhart for perpetuating lies just for money and who ever assigned the books as text books for school.

"How can Dumbledore hire someone who plans to teach out of a fraud's books? He can't possibly believe them, I mean, I can understand myself, I'm a muggleborn and never read any of his books, just heard that he is famous, but he was old before Lockhart was even born!"

Harry chuckled at her "old" comment and said, "I think it's because he doesn't want DADA to be taught properly for some reason. I mean, he is the one who started the rumor that the Defense position is cursed, and cursed by Voldemort no less, but I know for a fact that a 'position' can not be cursed, a person can, but not a job position, that's just... idiotic."

Hermione had a thought and smiled, "Well, it looks like we'll be getting a refund on our books this semester. After a month, we can go to Flitwick and request one because we won't be learning out of them, unless the professor plans on teaching us what NOT to do."

Harry laughed at this. They spent the rest of the week simply reading their Manybook from their vaults and walking around Hermione's neighborhood.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

Chapter 3

The following week, Harry and Hermione finished working on their mundane high school education. At that point, they were at a High school second year level, getting ready to go into their third year level. They had already done most of the work and were simply reading it over and getting ready to mail it to the home school program that they were dealing with.

Hermione asked, "Why doesn't Hogwarts have any of this? All the mundane born students can't possibly hope to leave the normal world forever and stay strictly in the magical world. It's just not rational or practical. There are so many other opportunities in the normal world as opposed to the magical one."

Harry shrugged, "Well, in other countries, they teach both a magical education as well as a mundane one. Here in Britain, the magical world doesn't think highly of the mundane world, so they slowly work to take the mundane borns and slowly separate them from the normal world. By not teaching anything but magical studies in their schools, it helps that process along without them realizing it. Most British magicals think that there is nothing that mundanes do that magic can't do better, they don't see the need for culture, philosophy or literature that is written for just the sake of writing it. They don't know really any of Shakespeare's work. They don't know art, their view on paintings is that if it doesn't talk or not a person, then there's no real point and therefore has no use in life."

Hermione just shook her head at the British magical world and it's incessant need to isolate itself from the much bigger world outside. They stopped talking about it because it would just irritate her even more. They finished going through their work and sent it all off to be looked over. They then decided to go over their Hogwarts summer work and see if they could add any more information that they learned in the States.

That evening, the adult Grangers got home and they sat down to dinner.

Dan said, "Okay, we will head to Diagon Alley to get your school things tomorrow. We have the other doctor taking our shift so we'll be able to spend the day at home. We'll go a little after breakfast."

Harry and Hermione agreed and they finished their dinner and went back to reading their Manybooks. Hermione was almost done with Rowena's personal journal she devoted to the study of Arithmancy and Harry was almost done with reading Merlin's personal journal he devoted to studying magical theory. They spent the rest of the night sitting on the couch with Hermione resting her head on his shoulder, both reading their books in silence.

In the morning they woke and had breakfast before they all got in the car and drove to London. They walked into the Leaky Cauldron at about 10:15am and made their way to the alley. Harry said hello to Tom but couldn't talk because the tiny pub was bustling with activity. They continued on their way. When they entered the alley they made their way up to Gringotts. Once inside, they went up to a closed station and spoke to the teller sitting there. He immediately led them to Ragnok's office.

Ragnok nodded to them as the entered and bowed, "What can I do for you today?"

Harry said, "We would like to get some money from our vaults as well as visit them to get a few things."

Ragnok nodded and signaled for a cart driver. Soon enough they were walking into their vaults. Harry walked into each of his vaults and changed some of the books on the Manybook Shelf out for new ones. After he did that, Hermione did the same for each of her vaults. They both put enough books on their shelves to have enough books to read until Christmas, when they would visit again. After they were done they made their way back out the alley. They made their rounds, Madam Malkins, the apothecary, the stationary shop, in case Dumbles decided to try and make a rule about using normal paper, pens and pencils. They also went to Eylops for owl treats and even in Quidditch supplies to buy Hermione and Harry broomstick care kit for Harry's broom and the broom Hermione bought in the States and to the trunk shop to get Hermione a new trunk that has the charms professionally done and not by Harry, who learned a lot the previous summer, but thought she should buy one that was made by a professional for continual use. After they had all that done, they made their way to Flourish and Blotts to get their books.

When they got there, they saw a large poster along the upper windows that stated there would be a book signing by Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry internally groaned but they entered the bookshop, there was a line all the way to the door and they saw that most of the people in line were witches. Harry got a sinking feeling in his stomach and couldn't understand why. Then they looked up at the front and saw a man standing on a slightly raised platform, he had forget-me-not blue robes on and seemed to have a permanent smile on his face. He stood their, posing for pictures being taken by various witches and then Harry and Hermione heard an annoying voice coming from not far ahead of them. They looked at saw a photographer pushing past him claiming to be from the _Daily Prophet_.

Ron complained loudly and Lockhart looked up at him, he stared for a moment and then shouted, "It can't be, Christopher Potter?"

As he made his way over to Chris, Harry tried to hide his face, he knew most of Britain gave him his own bloody title, "_The Lost Potter"_.

It didn't work, just as Lockhart was turning to take Chris up to the stage, he saw Harry and immediately made a beeline for him as well, "And Harry Potter? Wonderful, come with me boys."

He dragged Harry up to the stage, along with Chris, Harry noticed the adult Potters, along with Black and his fiance, the Longbottoms and Lupin. They all stared at him with smiles, as if they were happy to see him.

Lockhart shoved Harry to his left side and Chris to his right, then shoved a stack of books in each of their hands, "This is a surprise, when the young Potters walked in today, they had no idea that I would be gifting them with a complete set of my completed works, free of charge!"

At once the photographer snapped a picture and Lockhart leaned close, "Smile boys, together, we three are sure to make the front page."

Harry had had enough, he took Lockhart's hand, that was resting on his shoulders, and wrapped his hand around Lockhart's thumb and pulled back. Lockhart winced and let out a tiny moan of pain.

Harry said, loud enough for the audience to hear, "Your first mistake was putting your hands on me. I don't know you, nor do I care to. If I did, I would make a point to spend time to get to know you. Second, I am not a Potter, I have been and will remain for the rest of my life, Harry Daniels."

He still had Lockhart's thumb in his hand and continued to put pressure on it, to Lockhart, the grown man was near tears, it felt like the bone was ready to break!

Harry turned to the photographer, "And you, don't you dare take my picture without my permission. I have the right to stay out of the press and I plan to take it." the photographer gulped and nodded vigorously, he had heard what Harry had done the previous year to Skeeter.

Harry turned back to Lockhart, "Did you learn your lesson not to go up to little boys and grab them?"

Lockhart, in to much pain to realize how Harry had asked the question, nodded and Harry let him go.

He said, "Thank you. Now, since I don't want any free things a strange older man is handing out for free," he walks up to Ginny, "here you go. Have these on me. Now I need to pay an outrageous amount of money on school books that I will never read again after this year so excuse me." Ginny smiled and thanked him, ignoring her mothers gasp and disapproving looks.

He walked back to Hermione, who was standing there giggling at the dumbfounded looks on the other people's faces.

Harry smirked at her, "I think I taught him a very good lesson today, don't you agree?"

Hermione smiled and nodded, still laughing to much to say anything. Harry ignored the looks that he was getting from the women in the shop and simply got the books he needed and then went up to the register. When he was done, he went to wait by the front with the adult Grangers, who were talking with Arthur Weasley, while he waited for Hermione to peruse through a few sections that she thought might have something interesting.

He noticed Chris, Neville and Ron off to the side talking, studiously ignoring him, then he noticed Ginny, the youngest Weasley, and the twins standing a little more ways off. He walked over to them to talk.

"Hey Gred Forge. How's your summer been? Hey Ginny, how are you?"

The twins smiled brightly at him, "Hello Harry."

"We've been good,"

"How has"

"your summer been?"

"Yes, any,"

"new things to"

"show us?"

Harry smiled, "Nah, I spent a few weeks in Japan but they didn't have anything new. I did learn a new game from my friends there though, but I don't think Dumbledore will let us play it at school."

Ginny smiled at him, "Hey Harry. Thanks for the books. I heard about last year, Ron was more for the 'Your a bloody prat' stance but the twins had nice things to say. So how do you play this game?"

Harry laughed, "Ah, he just being pissy because he upset Hermione and I had to teach him not to. It was a painful lesson but he seems to have learned it, but then again, you can forget a lot of things you learn in school over the summer. I may have to teach him again." they laughed, "The game is basically you create a shield that reflects a spell sent at it and then cast a spell but condense it into a ball. Then you just banish it towards each other and use the shields to direct it towards the other players. It really improves your reflexes."

They just nodded, they would need to see it to understand. Hermione came up and seemed to know what they were talking about, but before she could, an unpleasant voice stopped not just their conversation, but the 3 stooges conversation as well.

"Bet you loved that Potter, Daniels, that was probably just a show to get more attention. How pathetic!"

Harry yawned, "Really Malfoy, you've had all summer and that's the best you could come up with?"

Hermione smirked, but Malfoy's face went pink, "Watch it Daniels! I'd like to see where you've spent your summer?"

Harry smiled, "Well, that's easy. I spent a month going from Japan to China and India, then down to the Bahamas to visit friends. Then I spent two weeks in America and France with Hermione and her family. It was fun, we even got the Mages there to teach us a few new tricks."

Malfoy's face went redder, "Spending time with filthy muggles and mudbloods! Pathetic, didn't have any family to see?" he sneered.

Harry shrugged, "Yeah, that's what I was doing the first month, visiting friends and family. But what did I tell you about using that word?"

Everyone saw Malfoy's face pale slightly but he just sneered. Before he could say anything more, Arthur and the Grangers came over. Arthur saw the confrontation and tried to get all the kids to got outside while Molly got the books signed and payed for, but was stopped. Lucius Malfoy came walking up. As he did, Harry sensed something foul, he couldn't figure out what though.

"Well, well, Arthur, how have you been?" he sneered.

Mr. Weasley stiffened, "Lucius." he said curtly.

Malfoy Sr. said, "I do hope the Ministry is giving you more time. I don't see how you'll be able to pay for all this." he picked up a book out of Ginny's cauldron and showed the frayed and torn pages, then slipped it back in the cauldron.

"Consorting with muggles? And I thought you could stoop no less. You're a disgrace to wizards." he sneered at the Grangers who were just looking on impassively, they knew Harry would sort it out, whatever it was.

Mr. Weasley responded, "We have a very big difference about what disgraces wizards Malfoy."

Harry had had enough, "Lucius, just go away. We don't need to listen to any of the crap that comes out of your mouth. I was having a very pleasant day until now."

The Weasleys gaped at his gall, but didn't say anything. The Potters, Longbottoms, Black and his fiance and Lupin made their way over to the confrontation, having heard Harry's comment.

Lucius sneered, "You need to learn your place boy. Although it doesn't surprise me, you've been spending to much time with these filthy muggles." the looked at the Grangers with disgust.

Harry again yawned, "Really? You're as bad as your pigheaded son. You can't even insult someone right."

The Potters tried to intervene but Malfoy Sr. cut them off, "You watch yourself boy, or your precious muggles might meet with an accident."

Harry smirked and exploded into action. His hand shot forward and snatched Malfoy's cane out of his hands. He twirled it around and used it to pull Malfoy's foot out from under him. Lucius landed with a thud. Harry stood over him and pinned him to the floor with the cane.

"Well, I have your wand? Doesn't that make you the same as a 'filthy muggle'? And I did it without an ounce of magic and it was taught to me by a squib. I suggest that you don't talk about things that you have no idea about. It just makes you sound like an idiot." he ignored the stunned looks he was getting from people in the shop who had turned to look at the fight.

Lucius snarled, "Let me up you insolent brat! Do you have any idea who I am?"

Harry shrugged, "Yeah, Lucius Malfoy, pigheaded ex-death eater who bribed his way out of prison. It doesn't matter to me. You just threatened the protectorates of the Ancient and Noble house of Daniels. As head of that family, I am completely within my rights to protect them. I would suggest that you leave now, otherwise I might have to tell the aurors about a certain room under a certain drawing room in someone's manor." he finished smirking.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw James Potter and Sirius Black glance at each other and nod to each other.

Lucius paled but said, "I have no idea what your talking about. Where did you hear something like that?"

Harry smiled, "I know lots of things about you. I also know a bit about some illicit looking finances that you have." without looking, his leg snapped out and hit Draco, who was sneaking up on him, in the stomach at the same time, channeling the same spell he used last Christmas into Draco, "Go away Draco, the grown ups are talking." Draco collapsed to the ground holding his stomach.

He turns back to Lucius, "I would advise that you don't ever try to attack any of my friends. It wouldn't end well for you."

Lucius scoffs and says, "What can a little whelp like you do?"

Harry thought about it, then smiled, he decided he would throw the Potters a bone, "Well, lets just say that I am forced to deal with Director Ragnok for ALL of my financial requests. He is the only goblin that can touch my accounts. And, as you know from personal experience, gold can buy A LOT of things."

At this declaration, Lucius paled considerably, all around them the people watching the confrontation widened their eyes. The Potters and their friends gasped.

Harry smirked, "Do we have an understanding?"

Lucius couldn't nod fast enough.

Harry smiled brightly, "Good! Glad we understand each other now." he dropped the cane next to Lucius' head and turned to Hermione and the Grangers, who were all smirking, "Well, that was exciting! Let's go, I think I want to go see that new movie that came out last week. We can go to dinner and see the movie, my treat."

With that, he took Hermione's hand and they headed for the door, ignoring the looks they were getting. Just as they got out the door, Lily and James Potter came out and said, "Harry!"

Harry sighed, turning to the Grangers, "Go on, I'll meet you at the car." they nodded and continued on, Hermione looking back at him in concern. Harry gave her a head nod, saying he would be alright.

He then turned to the Potter parents and sighed, "What?" he wasn't in the mood to play nice right now.

Lily said, "How was your summer?"

Harry shrugged, "Good. I got to see my friends and family again, it was nice."

Their faces reflected the sadness at the "family" comment, but James pressed on, "We were wondering if you would like to stay with us for the rest of summer."

Harry concentrated on not rolling his eyes, "No thanks. I'm staying with the Grangers. Besides, I wouldn't want to intrude on any of your family business."

Lily's eyes teared up slightly, James said, "You wouldn't Harry. We just want to get to know our son again. We know we were horrible to you, but we want to try and make it up to you."

Harry stared at them unblinking, until they fidgeted and averted their eyes, under his intense gaze, "I am not your son. He is the one in the bookstore. I told you, your other son died in 1986. Hell even before then and like I told Lockhart, if I want to get to know someone, I'll seek them out and make the effort, I don't want to make the effort with the Potter family. They have brought me nothing but pain and a lost childhood. I'm glad that you recognize that what you did to me was wrong, it gives me hope that if you have anymore kids, you wont do it to them, but it's to late for me. I don't want to be a Potter and I don't want to get to know any Potters, at least for the foreseeable future. Maybe something will happen later on, a few years from now, but as of right now, I don't want to." seeing Lily cry, he sighed, "Look, I'm sorry that this is hard to hear, but I tried to be nice. All last year I was pleasant and easy going, until you decided to gang up on me and Snape tried to rape my mind. But that didn't seem to work, after what happened with Lucius, I'm not in the mood to make the effort to be pleasant. So have a nice summer and I will see you at Hogwarts Professor Potter."

With that he turned away and started making his way to the Leaky Cauldron, before he got 20 feet away, the door to Flourish and Blotts opened and Chris Potter came out. Upon seeing his mother crying and Harry walking away, his temper flared.

"Daniels! What did you do to my mother?"

Harry just continued walking, ignoring the question. When he did this, Chris glared at his back and took his wand out and cast a curse at his back. Harry flipped around and a shield snapped into place before anyone could blink. Harry sent the same spell he used last Christmas back at him without anyone noticing.

He sneered, "Cursing someone in the back? I would say how Slytherin of you, but that would be an insult to the other Slytherins."

James and Lily were gaping at Chris, he had cursed someone in the back! As Harry finished talking, Chris' shoes grew wheels on the bottom of them and Chris lost his balance and fell.

Harry smirked, "You really should get that looked at. Your shoes are probably cursed, you should think about getting new ones. That could be dangerous if it were to happen on a stair case."

With that, he turned and made his way back to the mundane world.

Lily looked livid, "How could you curse him in the back like that? That is not how your father and I raised you!"

Chris scowled, "But he hurt you! I wasn't going to let him get away with that!"

James said, "No, he didn't do anything. But you did. You're grounded for the remainder of the week. No magic, no flying, no floo calls no anything. Cursing someone when their back is turned is a coward's act."

Chris scowled the whole way back to the Leaky Cauldron and on his way up to his room in Potter manor. Lily and James made their way to the kitchen and sat down at the table.

Lily said, "How does he have one of those accounts?

James shrugged, "I don't know." then had a thought and paled, "Actually, I do. Albus didn't want me to take the title of Lord Gryffindor for some reason. He told me that it would paint a target on all of our backs if it were revealed, not many outside the family knew that we were."

Lily's eyes widened, "Do you think he somehow found out about Lord Gryffindor?"

James nodded, "It's the only thing that makes sense. We need to tell Albus."

They went to the fire place and flooed to the Headmaster's office.

Dumbledore saw the and smiled, "Ah, James, Lily, it's nice to see you. How has your summer been?"

James said, "We're fine, but we thought you should know. We ran into Harry and the Grangers in Diagon Alley earlier. There was an altercation between him and Lucius Malfoy."

Dumbledore nodded, "Is he alright? I don't think Lucius would risk doing anything to him in public. Does he wish to come here to keep the Ms. Granger and her family safe?"

Lily shook her head no, "No, he's fine, if anything it's Lucius that got hurt. He threatened the Grangers and Harry beat him down in the middle of Flourish and Blotts. He advised him against threatening any of his friends and family. When Lucius claimed that he couldn't do anything, Harry told him that there was plenty he could do. He said that he has to go directly to the Director of Gringotts to deal with his finances. That Ragnok is the only goblin that can touch his accounts."

Albus paled, "Do you think he was serious?"

James nodded, "Yes. You know how the founders lines work. The head of house goes to the oldest son, no matter their status. I think he somehow found out about our relation to Gryffindor and and is now the head, he could do that because I didn't take the headship when I took over the Potter family."

Dumbledore was sweating bullets inside, _If he is Lord Gryffindor then he has far more power than I thought. That family wealth should be used for the greater good. Now it's even more important that I get control of him. The test last year didn't show anything. He didn't take the bait like Chris did so I don't know who the real boy of prophesy is._

He said, "Maybe we should allow this to leak to the press."

Lily immediately said, "NO! If it was unsafe for James to take the headship when he was an adult then it's even more unsafe for Harry."

Albus reasoned, "But if we let it leak, then it might put pressure on him to look to us for guidance. Even if we don't, by revealing what he did today, there will be families wanting control of him all over Europe when the news breaks. It's better if we get to him first."

Lily was unsure, she wanted Harry back but if they did this, they would be putting him in danger.

James spoke up, "I think that we should do it. Before you say anything, I don't want him in danger either, but this will show him that he still needs a family to help him deal with this. The people he counts as family do not live in Britain so he would be forced to come to us to help, he hasn't been back to Britain since he left so we would be the logical people to choose."

Lily sighed and nodded, but couldn't get rid of the feeling that what they were doing was wrong.

X0X0X0X0X0

"Why did you do THAT!"

Harry and the Grangers decided not to go out to dinner and a movie in favor of just going back to the house and relax after the confrontation in Flourish and Blotts. At the moment, they were all sitting at the table with dinner. The Grangers were watching Harry and Hermione argue about Harry revealing a bit of his finances.

Harry smirked, "Calm down Hermione. I did it because I know that they will think that they know what vault I have because my dad didn't take possession of it before me. Dumbledore didn't want him to. Now that I let them know a little they wont mess with me as much."

Hermione thought for a minute, "What if they leak the family name to the press? You'll be drowning in owls before the day is out!"

Harry smirked, "I took care of that already. I sent a letter to the _Prophet_ explaining that I will not accept any marriage agreements and any other agreements that other families can offer me. I told them, I simply don't care for Britain and it's bigoted ways and that I will be spending the least amount of time that I can in the British magical community. Also, I had any and all letters not dealing with select people and Hogwarts rerouted to Gringotts. Ragnok is having someone sort through the mail. They know what to throw out and what I may be interested in."

Hermione sighed, "Well, do you at least know how they will take that and how they will respond?"

Harry shrugged, "Well, you already know that I don't care about what other people think. The Ministry can't change any laws relating to those vaults because they pre-date the ministry and they can't touch the other 3 accounts because I already took control of them. The only thing they can do is make it so that I can't claim any other families and still live outside of Britain. I am a citizen in nearly every country in the ICW so they can't arrest me on trumped up charges or keep me here against my will unless they are willing to risk an international incident. Trust me, I knew that I would be revealing a bit more about myself this year and I thought it out. It wasn't just something I decided to do on a whim. Plus it isn't even about the money in the vault. Not even James Potter knew about the wealth that was in it. Only my grandfather did. He just thinks that I have a lot of political power, which I do, and prestige that go along with being the head of that house. They don't even know that I have some control over Hogwarts, well, more than some, I also have access to Slytherin's vault and family. With us together, we can, technically, control the school."

Hermione looked abashed and apologized, Harry smiled and kissed her saying, "Don't worry about it, I know you were just looking out for me. Though you did bring up a good point."

Hermione looked confused, "Which was?"

Harry smiled, "They will probably leak it to try and get leverage on me and try to use the pressure, that is sure to come with the leak, to get me to come to them for help. I mean I don't have any family in Britain, well, I'm starting to think of you guys as family," the Grangers smiled at him, "but no magical family. They are the logical choice I would make to get help, if I cared for them in the least or even remotely liked them." then he thought of something and turned to the adult Grangers, "I need to come with you to the surgery tomorrow. I need to set up an intent based, modified Shadow Fidelius ward around it."

At their blank looks, he explained, "It will make it so that anyone that means you or the building harm, will not be able to find it. It's already on the house and built into your watches. But they can still attack the building if they know your there. I don't think that Malfoy is stupid enough to attack you after he threatened you in public and knowing what I could do to him, but he was stupid enough to join Voldemort, so it's better to be safe, then sorry." they nodded and then went to bed. Hermione and Harry stayed up a bit more to read a bit.

The following morning, both kids went with the adult Grangers to the surgery and placed the wards, then shadow walked back home. When they got home, they read the previous day's entire incident in the _Prophet_. It described how Malfoy Sr. insulted Arthur Weasley, then proceeded to insult and threaten the protectorates of an Ancient and Noble family. It depicted Harry as just a head of house defending those under his protection. The story after that was about Harry being the head of a family with one of the first ten vaults and that it was suspected that he was the head of House Gryffindor. After was Harry's letter, word for word;

_To The Daily Prophet_

_I revealed that I am the head of one of the families that owns one of the first ten vaults in Gringotts. This is true. One of my vaults is one of the first ten. However, before any families decide to start sending offers of advice and other gestures, I must say that I will refuse them all. I will accept no marriage contracts from anyone either. I don't plan on staying in Britain long enough to care. I dislike Britain and since 1986, I have been back very rarely. Twice to be exact. The first time was in 1988 and I was just checking on my accounts with Director Ragnok. I may have ventured out into Diagon alley once or twice to look for any books that seemed interesting, but for the most part, I stayed in mundane (muggle) Britain. I prefer it to magical Britain because it has more entertainment for me. I found myself bored very quickly with Magical Britain and decided to stay on the mundane (muggle) side for as long as I could. The second time, I spent some time touring around and looking for obscure books on Runes with a friend. After a few days, I spent the remaining time with a friend in St. Ottery Catchpole but rarely going into magical Britain, opting instead to spend my time looking for books in the mundane (muggle) world, I hadn't read many out of Britain and wanted to see what was new. Even during the summer in between school years, I am out of the country, usually in Japan or China. I prefer other countries to Britain because in other countries, Magicals are much more understanding of difference in views and are much more in tune with the mundane (muggle) world. There are just to many bigots in Magical Britain for me to want to spend any extended amount of time in it. After I spend a month out of the country, I spend the rest of my summer at a friends house in mundane Britain. So, to reiterate, I will not accept any marriage contracts or advice about politics or finances. I appreciate it from those who were going to help just to be kind, but don't appreciate those that would try to take advantage of me. I will always make my own choices and not let anyone tell me otherwise. I really couldn't care less what others think of me. For those that may be offended by this, I apologize, it was no insult to you or your beliefs and traditions, it is just how I feel. I would not have survived long if I hadn't learned to fend for myself and not allow what others thought of me to effect my actions._

_Lord Harry Jackson Daniels_

_ Lord of House Daniels, Gryffindor and others_

Hermione was left gaping at the obvious insult to the British magical world, but couldn't fault him for doing it. This way, anyone who was going to try and take advantage will be put off by his attitude concerning Britain.

She asked, "How are you going to do the duties that you have in the Wizengamot?"

Harry smirked, "Well, I asked Miku for a favor and she said yes. She will come to Britain for Wizengamot meetings, when she can't, I'll send a letter to Augusta Longbottom and ask her to do so in my stead. I am wondering what I should do about my other families."

Hermione thought, "Why can't you just ask Ragnok to appoint a goblin for you?"

Harry nodded, "I honestly didn't think of that. I think I will."

He sent off a letter to Ragnok later that day and got a reply the following morning.

Ragnok said;

_Mr. Daniels_

_Regarding your request. To have a Goblin present in the Wizengamot chambers has never been done, but it also is not stated that it cannot be done. If you give written permission to the goblin representative, then you should have no problem with it. However, I feel I should warn you, if you appoint a goblin representative it will severely limit those allies that you will have and be able to get later on. I suggest that in the note you write to the Wizengamot that the Goblin will read, you point out that you are paying very well for our services, then it will go a long way to get you allies. The families on the Wizengamot respect money and by saying that you are paying us to do this, it will show them that you know what you are doing and that you will not allow anyone to control you. You will be sending letters to the representative to give your views on the subjects and have him vote accordingly._

_The price for a representative will be per Wizengamot meeting, it is G75 each meeting and an additional G50 for meetings that go on for more than a day. I have already told you that there isn't a precedent for this, therefore the price is based upon the price of a Goblin Solicitor spending a day in court for someone. As your financial advisor, I am telling you now, you will make this up in a day worth of interest in your Gryffindor account alone. Also, it might also interest you to know that we will also be able to represent your other families within the Wizengamot anonymously._

_All you would need to do is write a letter for each representative and state that because of House Gryffindor using this method, the heads of the other families wish to do the same to remain anonymous. Ms. Granger can as well. As your financial advisor, you both are well within your interest of your respective accounts to afford to do this._

_Waiting for your response, _

_Director Ragnok, War Chief of the Goblin Race_

They talked about the offer and decided to go for it. They sent off two separate letters to Ragnok, telling him that they would like a goblin to represent each of their families that have seats on the Wizengamot. For Harry, it was; the Emrys seat, Gryffindor seat, Slytherin seat, Peverell seat, Dracumis seat and the Daniels seat, the Daniels and Gryffindor seats will have the same goblin representative, just being payed double. For Hermione, it was the LeFay seat, Ravenclaw seat, Hufflepuff seat, the Shadow seat and the Trisfoum seat. Many families would be very upset that the proxies for these families that they had, were going to be taken away. Many others will be shocked that there are so many of the first ten vaults open.

They spent the rest of the break just reading and practicing the things they learned in America. They heard from Ragnok that there was shock at the news that he had appointed a Goblin as his representative within the Wizengamot. Many people had never thought about it and there were some families that wished the same services when they couldn't make it to the meetings. Others were outraged that he would not give the position to another wizard or witch. Harry didn't care. He and Hermione would send the official letters to the Wizengamot, letting them know about their other families after school had started to throw off any suspicion.

By the time September 1st came around, they had the art of telepathy mastered. They also had used it with each other so much that they could recognize each other's minds in an instant and could talk to each other mentally as easily as if they spoke aloud. They also spent a great deal of time going over the rules of the Wizengamot and the current issues that were going on in Britain. They had sent letters to later be sent from Gringotts, to the Wizengamot, detailing that they, as the heads of the families, wanted to remain anonymous and therefore, would be paying the goblins to represent them during Wizengamot business. They never identified themselves and wrote a letter per family, for misdirection. Harry only identified himself as the Head of House Gryffindor and Daniels, the other families, he wrote the letter as if reading about what Harry had done, in the paper and decided to do the same. Hermione did the same and they both pointed out that they are doing this so that no one can find out who they are, goblins were immune to Legilimency and Veritaserum and they were paying the goblins a fair bit of money to represent their wishes and that any and all mail would need to be sent to Gringotts to be later sent to them.

The morning of September 1st came bright and early. Harry and Hermione were already up by the time Dan and Emma got up. The two kids were in the kitchen making breakfast for everyone. Hermione was still not as good in the kitchen as Harry, but she was already better than both her parents. They had breakfast and then left the house at around 9 o'clock.

They arrived to find King's Cross Station busy as ever. They didn't need to stop to get a cart, the kids had already shrunk their trunks and Harry let Hedwig fly to Hogwarts so she wasn't stuck in a cage for the long ride to Hogsmeade. They made their way onto the hidden platform and then stayed with Hermione's parents for a little bit, they had made good time and so were relatively early, it was only 10:00, they had another hour before the train left. Harry put up a notice-me-not charm around their area so people wouldn't see him and come over to try and talk about the whole business with House Gryffindor.

At about 10:30 they said goodbye and headed for the train to find a compartment. When they did, they got their books out of their day packs and sat down to read, again with Hermione's head on Harry's shoulder. About ten minutes after they settled down, the compartment door opened and a small blond girl with slightly bulging eyes, stepped in. She saw Harry and smiled brightly and rushed over and hugged him.

"Hello Harry!"

Harry chuckled, "Hello Luna, Hermione, this is Luna Lovegood. She'll be a first year this year. Luna, this is my Hermione Granger, my best friend."

Hermione flushed at the possessive nature that Harry used with her and smiled at the other girl, though with a twinge of jealousy.

"Hello Luna, it's nice to meet you. So how long have you known each other?"

Harry smiled and Luna moved to sit across from them, "I met her in 1990. I was here to look at my finances with Ragnok and was exploring St. Ottery Catchpole, I have a stretch of land near there, and I came across Luna and her mother, Selene."

Luna smiled slightly, "He saved my mum. She was doing an experiment with a new spell when it went wrong and the magical backlash nearly brought the old farm, where she practices her spell creation, down around us. I was playing in the corner and the next thing I know, there was a loud noise and an explosion. My mum was on the ground, all of a sudden, Harry came running into the barn and helped get my mum to St. Mungo's, after he healed the most serious injuries. After that, my mum and daddy talked him into staying for the rest of the summer. I haven't seen you in a while Harry, how have you been? And thank you for all those books."

Harry smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, sorry about that Luna. I've been good. I traveled around a lot after I left Britain, just came back for the beginning of my first year, I'm glad you liked them. How are your parents doing?"

Luna looked off to the side for a few moments, then turned back to him and said in her dreamy voice, "They are fine. Mum wanted me to tell you that you should write more and that she is proud of the way you handled the Prophet the other week."

At Hermione's questioning glance Harry explained, "Luna has Mage Sight, unlike most, she can't turn it off so she is sometimes distracted. She has an advanced form and sometimes it comes out, it lets her see the earth's magic, unlike how normal mage sight works. Normal Mage Sight lets you see the magic surrounding a magicals' body, or aura and enchanted items. After you use it for years, it develops more and allows you to see all forms of magic, both the kind we use and the natural magic that was around before it."

Hermione nodded her understanding, "That must be interesting, what do you see?"

Luna looked at her for a moment, "I see that your magic and Harry's reaching out towards each other and when you're close to each other, it intermingles and dances with each other. When you walk together, your combined magic leaves footsteps on the ground, like footsteps on a beach."

Hermione blushed and looked away from Harry but Harry just smiled and hugged Hermione closer, "She's my best friend and more Luna. Just like your my sister." he kissed Hermione on the cheek.

Luna smiled brightly at him and Hermione realized that Luna would never like Harry more than that. She smiled and decided to befriend the girl as well. They spent the rest of the time talking while they waited for the train to get a move on. At about two minutes before the train got a move on, Harry saw a sea of red hair enter the platform, he rolled his eyes at the tardiness of the Weasley family, but noticed that he hadn't see the Potters or their friends at all, nor the Longbottoms. He shrugged it off and focused on the conversation between Hermione and Luna on the basics of animation charms. He smiled, he was happy that he had sent Luna books over the months, to give her something to read, she had always been smarter than most gave her credit for. He was brought out of his thoughts as the train started moving.

A few minutes later, their compartment door opened again, admitting Ginny, "Can I sit with you guys? The twins went off to find Lee Jordan and I can't find Ron, Chris or Neville anywhere."

Harry smiled, "Sure Ginny, I don't know if you had a chance to meet at Flourish and Blotts, but this is Hermione Granger," he hugged her tightly again, "and I'm sure that you know Luna."

Ginny smiled and sat down next to Luna, "Hello Hermione, it's nice to meet you. Hey Luna, sorry I wasn't around last summer, I think my mum wanted to try and put a whole year of spending time with me into a few months. How was your guys' summer?"

Luna smiled, "Mine was fine. I went with my parents to Scandinavia."

Harry smiled, "I spent the first month in Japan, China, India and the Bahamas visiting with friends and family I hadn't seen last year, though, mostly China. Then I spent the rest of my time with Hermione and her family. We went to America for a week and to France for another. The rest of the time we spent at her house. It was great."

Hermione blushed, "Yeah, it was. We got to learn from a few of the American Mages that Harry knew and the whole time we were in France we spent down at the beach and Harry had a supply of Gillyweed so we spent most of the time underwater."

Ginny smiled, "That sounds like it would have been fun. I got to spend my summer with my mum fussing over my leaving and with Percy being a pompous arse. Ron and the boy wonder spent most of their time with Neville at Potter Manor. The only people that weren't annoying were the twins. They had nothing but good things to say about you Harry. It seems as though you out pranked them last year and they plan to get back on top this year. Something about being better than the shadows?"

Harry and Hermione laughed and they continued to talk about their summer activities and different things. Ginny told them that the Longbottoms and Potters were busy so Chris and Neville came with them to the station. Eventually they went back to their reading and continued their journey in silence. After a while, the trolley lady came by and Harry bought snacks for all of them and they ate while talking a bit more.

Ginny excitedly said, "Can you believe that Lockhart is going to be our Professor?"

Harry and Hermione both groaned, "You're not serious are you?"

Ginny nodded, "Yes, he said so later, after you left Flourish and Blotts. Why did you treat him like that anyway Harry?"

Harry sighed, "Because Ginny, he is a fraud. He didn't do anything in his books. I mean half of his books are dedicated to teaching you how to keep looking 'pretty' while you're fighting for your life. How is that even possible?"

Ginny argued, "But then why would everyone believe him?"

Hermione said, "Because those things really did happen, it's just that Lockhart didn't do them and they didn't happen like they did in the books. We think that Lockhart travels around and tracks down witches and wizards that really did do those things and finds out everything they did and then uses a memory charm on them. I didn't believe it either until Harry gave examples from each book, then I looked at the timeline for each book. He had to be in multiple places at the same time for some of his books to be true."

Ginny asked, "Like what examples?"

Harry shrugged, "Well, can a vampire survive on nothing but lettuce? Can a normal man fight a transformed werewolf barehanded and win? Is it possible to trap a ghoul with a tea strainer?"

Ginny shook her head no for each question and Harry said, "Well, according to his books, he has done all of that."

Ginny's face grew red, "You mean that my family had to buy those books when he didn't do anything in them?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, we are going to try and get a refund on them from the school after a month or so. Saying that we aren't learning anything so we find that being forced to buy the books was a waste of our money and we would like a refund. We don't know if the school will allow it, but it never hurts to try, besides, it worked for me last year when Snape was destroying my potions when they were perfectly good. I went to McGonagall and explained that they were good and that I shouldn't have to pay for more ingredients when Snape destroyed them because he is a petty child in a greasy bat's body."

Ginny giggled at that and they continued talking, Harry and Hermione telling the two younger girls about their first year.

Eventually they reached Hogsmeade Station and had to part ways. They still hadn't seen the three stooges, but didn't really care. When they got off the train, Ginny and Luna went towards Hagrid and Harry and Hermione went to the thestral pulled carriages. As they made their way up to the castle, they felt a pressence enter their mind.

_Do not worry my young heirs. It is Hogwarts, because you both recognize that you are my heirs, I may finally speak to you._

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and smirked.

_Harry - Well, this is different. While we're talking, can Dumbles or the bat enter our minds or use telepathy, not that I think they know it, to listen to our conversations?"_

_Hogwarts - No, young heir, they can not hear anything that is discussed this way._

_Hermione - Well, what if the headmaster orders you to tell him what is discussed?_

_Hogwarts - No my young heiress. I am loyal only to you and my students. Because you both are my only heirs, the heirs of the Founders by blood and magic, you may command me as you will. However, if an order goes against the safety of my students, I may refuse._

_Harry - Okay, understandable. But what exactly can you do? What does this mean?_

_Hogwarts - It means that if you need anything, simply contact me this way and we can converse like we are now. I can give you total control of the wards and you both are completely protected within my walls. Any others you wish me to protect more so than my other students will be so protected._

_Harry - Okay, well, that list is two long, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood. But we don't want control of the wards right now. Also, can you report on the headmaster to us?_

_Hogwarts - Yes I can, if you so wish. Also, the portraits know that you are to be obeyed as well. They will not report anything to the headmaster that you tell them not to._

_Hermione - Can you take away a teacher's ability to take points? And stop another teacher for taking points for said teacher?_

_Hogwarts - I can._

_Hermione - Great, we will probably have you do that to Snape sooner rather than later._

_Hogwarts - It will be my pleasure._

With that, Hogwarts receded form their heads and they were left in silence as they made their way up to the castle. The sorting went as it did the previous year, Luna was sorted into Ravenclaw with Harry and Hermione, but Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor with her bothers. They saw the slight look of disappointment on her face when she looked over at them but they smiled at her, reassuring her that they would still spend time with her.

Part way through the feast Harry noticed a slight disturbance at the staff table, Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore stood and left the Great Hall. Hogwarts informed them that Chris and Ron had flown a car straight into the Whomping Willow. They had to fight very hard to not snort into their drinks or smirk when they heard that. Harry did notice that Luna was staring at them more.

He whispered, "What is it Luna?"

She said, "It's just that your magic is reaching out to each other and to the castle. It's strange. When you guys are close enough, you magic intermingles with each other, then reaches out to the castle and the castle's magic is reaching at you and Hermione as well."

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other and shrugged, Harry turned back to Luna and said, "Don't worry Luna, after I look at your mind defenses, I will be able to tell you some of what is going on. We just don't want Dumbles and Snape to look into your mind and get it from you."

Luna nodded and continued to eat her pudding. The feast continued as usual from there, Harry and Hermione let Luna be taken with the other first years to be shown to the common room. They went up a bit later and sat down on the couch by the fire in the common room and pulled out their books to read some before going to sleep, both were happy to be back but also disappointed that they would have nothing to do in their classes.

A/N - I know this one was long but it sort of just flowed and I couldn't figure out where to cut it off, so I just went with it. Hope to have the next one up soon (as in by the end of the weekend) but I may need to put a hold on it in favor of some studying.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

Chapter 4

Harry came downstairs to meet Hermione for their morning workout at about 6 am. They didn't say much as they walked downstairs, both were slightly tired from staying up reading. They immediately started their laps around the Black Lake. After that, they went into their push ups and sit ups and then finished with their katas. They were finally done at about 8 and made their way back up to the common room to shower. When they got there, they found Luna sitting on a couch alone.

Harry walked up to her and noticed dry tear marks on her face, "Luna, what happened?"

Luna jerked her head towards them and asked, "Where did you two come from?"

Hermione answered, "We just got back from our morning workout. You didn't answer the question. What happened?"

Luna waved dismissively, "Oh, it's nothing. Some of the other girls hid some of my things. One of those things was a necklace that my mum gave me. I'm sure that it'll turn up eventually."

Harry's face darkened slightly, he said, "I'm going to run up and shower off, then I'll be right back down here okay Luna?"

She looked at him and nodded. Hermione told her the same thing and they both ran upstairs. They raced through their showers and got ready for the day. They made it back down in a record 15 minutes, with their bags for the day.

Harry sat next to the blond and said, "Luna, do you want me to put some wards on your things so that no one can touch them but you?"

Luna looked at him and nodded, she seemed to upset to say anything. Harry took out his wand and waved it over his head and stated, "Accio Luna's missing things!" Almost at once, a hoard of items came hurtling out of the upstairs girls' dorms and from around the common room and even from outside the common room. People watched as a second year used a charm, that wasn't learned until fourth year, and seemed to have it mastered. When Harry and Hermione saw how much was taken from Luna, they were beyond mad. Harry started waving his wand over each item, with Hermione doing a separate pile. It was like they had emptied her whole trunk of items. Harry looked over at her and noticed that she had on two left shoes. He kneeled down in front of her and gently pulled the shoe off of her right foot and put the correct shoe on.

He said, "Luna, promise that you will come to me if something like this happens again? I want to help you. Whoever did this wasn't just pulling a prank, they were being cruel, they were being bullies and I don't like when bullies mess with my family. The next time someone tries to mess with your things, they will get a nasty surprise okay?"

Luna nodded and threw her arms around him and cried silently, "I only talked about some of the creatures Daddy writes about. I know some of them aren't real, but some are, I've seen them."

Hermione came over and hugged her, "We know, Luna. Some people are just pigheaded. I was the same way, I was always self conscience of what others thought of me, if they were mean to me, I would go home and cry myself to sleep. But you don't need to worry about what others think of you, just your friends and family. As long as you have them, you'll be alright. Come on, lets go down to breakfast."

With that, Hermione cast a charm to clean up Luna's face and they made their way downstairs towards the Great Hall. When they got there, they made their way over to the Ravenclaw table and sat themselves away from the rest of their house. No one thought anything of it, Harry and Hermione often separated themselves from everyone else during their first year.

As they were eating, Luna looked at Harry, "Can you teach me to be like you?"

Harry rubbed the back of his neck, "It's hard Luna. I'm the way I am because I had no one to care for me when I was growing up. I learned to fend for myself at an early age, I developed the mindset that if my own family didn't care about me, then why should I care about what anyone else thought of me. I was really bitter back then. When I went away, I found a new family, one who liked me and payed attention to me, scolded me when I did something wrong and praised me when I did something right."

He took a breath, "They helped me move past the bitterness and be at peace with what happened. Even after all of that, my mindset is still the same, why should I care about what other people think of me if I don't know them or care for them? I only care about what very few people think of me. You and your parents, Hermione and her parents, Miku and her family and a few other people. I just look at it like, why should I waste time and energy trying to be what others want me to be when it isn't truly who I am? Do you understand?"

Luna smiled, "I think so. I'll try remember that."

Unbeknownst to them, Prof. Flitwick was behind them listening to the conversation, when Harry finished he started clapping, "Very good Mister Daniels. That is a very good outlook to have for someone so young. I am sorry that you had to develop that mindset so young and for the reasons that you did, but it is wise to have. If you try to change just so others will like you, you are not truly being yourself around them. I saw how you helped Miss Granger develop this last year and was sad to see that you needed it. 10 points to Ravenclaw. Here are your schedules, Mr. Daniels, Ms. Granger, Ms. Lovegood. I hope you have a pleasant day. Oh, and by the way, Harry, I rather enjoyed the letter that you sent to the _Daily Prophet_. It was very smart to make it clear that you will not be manipulated and will not accept anything like a marriage contract from the start. Otherwise you would have been drowning in owls. Though, many families will be angry with you for insulting magical Britain."

Harry smirked, "A fair few still sent them anyway. I had all owls not from Hogwarts and a few friends diverted to Gringotts. I'm paying the goblins good money to sort through the important stuff and forward me anything that needs my immediate attention. And like I said in the letter, I don't care what other people think. I'm not here enough to care."

Flitwick nodded, "A wise choice. Goblins are experts at efficiency and finances, they should be able to help you out greatly."

As he walked away Luna turned to Harry, "I think I understand. I'll try and not let what others say, get to me. It's just that when they take my things and pick on me physically, it hurts."

She trailed off and Harry said, "Do you want me to owl your folks and ask if I can put your family under my family's protection?"

Luna shyly nodded, "I think that would be fine, they don't pick on Hermione because you protect her so it should work for me too."

Harry laughed, "That's how it was in the beginning, now they don't pick on her because she doesn't let them. She doesn't give them a reaction that they like so they stopped."

Luna nodded and turned back to eat, deep in thought. Not ten minutes later, there was a commotion at the Gryffindor table. It seemed that Ron got a howler from his mother. Even from across the hall, Harry couldn't hear anything for a few minutes after Molly Weasley's voice died down. Most students laughed at Ron, though some were more sympathetic towards him, simply because of who his mother was. Harry noticed that Longbottom was more depressed then usual, as was Chris. He figured that they got a stern talking to from their parents the night before or earlier in the morning.

Harry finally looked at his schedule and realized that Dumbles must be trying to get him and Chris to interact more, his schedule was much more balanced with each class this year.

_Mondays:_

_Herbology - Ravenclaw, Slytherin_

_Potions, - Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff_

_Transfiguration - Ravenclaw, Gryffindor_

_Defense Against the Dark Arts - Ravenclaw, Gryffindor_

_Tuesdays:_

_Charms - Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff_

_History of Magic - Ravenclaw, Slytherin_

_Wednesday:_

_Double Potions - Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff_

_Transfiguration - Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff_

_Double DADA - Ravenclaw, Gryffindor_

_Astronomy - Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff_

_Thursday:_

_Double Herbology - Ravenclaw, Slytherin_

_History of Magic - Ravenclaw, Slytherin_

_Double Charms - Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff_

_Friday:_

_Potions - Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff_

_Transfiguration - Ravenclaw Gryffindor_

_Defense Against the Dark Arts - Ravenclaw, Gryffindor_

He sighed, he would be spending more time with the Gryffindor three stooges and Slytherin's idiotic trio.

A little while later, Harry saw Professors Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall and Potter, along with Auror's Potter and Black making their way towards him. He groaned, why couldn't they just leave him alone?

He turned to Hermione, "I'm going to need you to take my bag, the blind meddlers are coming to drag me away for our yearly talk."

Hermione glanced up and saw them, looked back at Harry and nodded. Luna just sat there, not completely knowing what was going on. Harry gave her a hug and got up, then kissed Hermione's temple and walked past the approaching party, who had heard his comment and stopped in shock, he didn't even so much as give them one look. He made his way up to the staff table.

"Prof.s Flitwick, Sprout, could you accompany me up to the Headmaster's office? He seems to need an entourage to intimidate me so I would like you there as well. It's only fair since he has two teachers that have no business there, well, Prof. McGonagall does, she is the Deputy headmistress."

Flitwick sighed and nodded, Sprout just looked slightly confused, but nodded her assent. They got up and Harry turned and headed for the headmaster's office, sweeping past the other professors without a glance. All of the adults had to walk quickly to keep pace with the second year. By the time they reached the gargoyle that guarded the headmaster's office, Harry was leaning up against the wall, waiting for them.

"Can we hurry this up? I would like to not miss my first class this year like I was forced to last year."

They ignored his attitude, except for Prof. Sprout and the Potters, the others knew that he was blunt when he wanted to be, the Potters were taken aback by his brisk attitude with them. They made their way up to the headmaster's office and the adults took a seat while Harry stood.

Dumbledore waved a hand and conjured a seat for him, "Have a seat Harry."

Harry shook his head, "No thanks, I don't want to get comfortable when I'm just going to leave soon. I have a class to get to."

The headmaster sighed at the brush off and pressed on, "Harry, we are concerned about your letter to the _Prophet_. We think that it would be in your best interest if you let us help you deal with you familial matters."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Look headmaster, I don't care what you think I should do. If you read my letter, then you should know that. I don't spend enough time in this country to feel that it matters where I stand. And Ragnok agrees."

James said, "But you don't understand the responsibilities that come with being the head of House Gryffindor."

Harry smirked, "I never said what house I was head of. Besides myself and a select few that I trust with my life, only three people knew that I was head of Gryffindor, and they're in this room."

The Potters and Albus paled slightly, Dumbledore pressed on, "You don't know that. The press are relentless."

Harry sighed, "Well, considering that i pay the Goblins a very high price to keep my finances even more secret than most, not to mention that my mind is extremely hard to get into, as you and Snape well know, I doubt that they found out from those sources, so I think it's safe to assume that you leaked the information just to get me to come to you to help me out. Is that about right?"

He smirked as they paled, McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout's eyes went wide.

James asked, "How do you know that your friends didn't just tell the wrong person?"

Harry shrugged, "Because I trust them more than the people in this room, with the exeption of Prof. Flitwick."

Filius smiled, while the others were left gaping, the Potters looked as if they were just slapped.

Harry sighed after a moment of uncomfortable silence, he seemed to be the only one not affected, "Look, can I go now? I want to get to class. We all know that what I said earlier was true, so can we just leave it? I don't really care that you ratted me out to the press, they would have found out eventually and I knew you would the moment I revealed that I had access to one of the first ten vaults. Besides, _Headmaster_ this does not concern school matters, so it does not concern you. If you are here in your position of Chief Warlock, then I will direct you to the letter that I sent to the Wizengamot. Everything can be sent to Gringotts and they will forward me anything that needs my attention. Otherwise, it does not concern you and don't think that I wont enact the same clause that I did last year if you irritate me anymore. Mr. and Mrs. Potter, Mr. Black, my life doesn't concern any of you at all. You did not care when I was still a Potter, do not start now, as I said last year and in Diagon Alley, Harry Potter is dead, you have no reason to meddle in my life. Please respect my wishes. Thank you."

With that, he turned around and said, "Thank you for coming up with me Professors Sprout and Flitwick, I'll see in class."

As he neared the door, he felt an attack on his mind, though this one was slightly sharper.

Harry turned to face Snape and said, "Keep practicing Snape, you might actually be a challenge someday, but that isn't today." with that, he through the probe out of his mind with enough force to send Snape flying across the office.

With that, he turned around and walked out. The occupants of the office were left gaping at his whole speech. Finally, Flitwick stood up, looked at the Potters and Albus with irritation, then simply left. Sprout soon followed with McGonagall, who was carrying Snape's unconscious body.

Lily cried as she said, "I t-told you that we sh-shouldn't have let it leak! Now he thinks we did it to manipulate him."

Sirius said, "Isn't that was you were doing to begin with?"

Lily nodded sadly, but explained, "We just want him back. We just want him to give us a chance."

Sirius shook his head, "He's made it abundantly clear that he doesn't want to give us another chance. I think we should just leave him alone for a while."

With that he left the office, leaving the Potters to their misery and Dumbledore to his manipulations and planning.

X0X0X0X0

Harry walked through the halls and realized that he had just enough time to get back to the Great Hall and meet with Hermione so they could go to class together. He knew he was a jackass to them back in the office, but this year, he wasn't going to be nice if they weren't going to leave him alone. He would be as blunt as he wanted to be and say exactly what he wanted them to hear.

He walked into the Great Hall to see that most of the girls in the Hall were facing towards the staff table and most of the guys were grumbling under their breath. He looked up and saw that Lockhart was eating at the staff table and every so often, he would smile and talk to so female student. He smiled evilly, this year would be fun.

He walked over to the Ravenclaw table and sat down next to Luna, "So what did I miss?"

Hermione shrugged, "Nothing really, the idiot ponce came in a bit ago and this is how it's been since." she waved her hand around the hall.

Harry smirked, "Well, we should welcome him, Shadow style."

Hermione smirked and the few who glanced over at her had cold shivers run up their spines. Harry continued to eat what was left of his breakfast and just as most students were getting up to get their things for class, there was a commotion at the staff table.

They turned to look and saw Lockhart smiling, but his eyes told another story, it seemed to be the only thing he could do. They looked like they were horrified. All of a sudden, all the left over food that was in the hall started spiraling and coming together. It formed a giant blob of left over food. Then it floated towards the frozen DADA professor and and went above him, then lost all cohesiveness and he was showered with syrup, pancakes, eggs bacon and a whole host of other food. He sat there, frozen, still smiling painfully. The students were left gaping, until the Weasley twins fell to their knees laughing so hard. They broke the dam and every guy started laughing, even some girls, though the majority were shocked and speechless. All the while, Harry, Hermione and Luna left the hall, headed for their first class of the year.

The first few days were normal. McGonagall gave them a stern talking to about a new year of Transfiguration, Flitwick with Charms and Sprout with Herbology. Snape must have decided that he would make Harry's life miserable this year and started out with a bang. Their first class he spent more time insulting Harry's potion's skills than he did, walking around, checking the other students' potions. Harry thoroughly ignored him which made him even angrier. He vanished his potion three times in one lesson and gave him a zero for the day.

Their first defense lesson was slightly more interesting. It started off with a quiz about Lockhart. It had nothing to do with Defense and everything to do with his much overinflated ego. He answered all the questions but not with the answers that the ponce was looking for.

_What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

_ I don't know, whatever is the color of a memory charm._

_What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

_ To get as many idiots to buy his books so he can continue to paying for his teeth replacement procedures._

_What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest ambition to date?_

_ Getting the idiots of Wizarding Britain to believe his lies, but that isn't that hard so it really isn't that "great", but the best that he can do. He's pants at everything but memory charms._

_What was the spell that Gilderoy Lockhart used to defeat that Wagga Wagga Werewolf?_

_ The memory charm, well, he didn't use it to defeat the werewolf, he just used it on Gregory Shcmint, the guy who really defeated the werewolf._

_How does one keep one's hair out of their eyes when fighting a werewolf?_

_ Either shave your head so there isn't any hair to get in the way or... I DON'T CARE YOUR FIGHTING A WEREWOLF YOU IDIOT!_

_How did Glideroy Lockhart defeat the Werewolf in hand-to-hand combat?_

_ He just showed up. The werewolf collapsed, pissing himself in laughter._

_What came of the Vampire that chose to fight Gilderoy Lockhart in "Voyages with Vampires"?_

_ Nothing, Lockhart never saw the vampire. If he did, the vampire would have just run away in fear of losing his memory. Or simply used his outrageously over sized teeth to blind the vampire with the light reflecting off of them._

_What league is Gilderoy a member of?_

_ Nothing. He says he's an honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, but so can I. The reason he isn't actually a member is probably because they would require him to prove that he knows his stuff and that would require him to actually do something other than wipe a person's memory._

_How did Gilderoy..._

The quiz continued on like that the whole way. Harry continued to answer the questions this way and when the half hour was up. He made sure that his test was the second from the top.

"Tsk Tsk, not one of you remembered that my favorite col-"

His face went red, Harry smirked and asked, "Is there a problem professor?"

Lockhart glanced at him and coughed nervously, "N-No. Mr. Potter."

Harry sighed, "I know your new and all, but I had to got through this last year. My name is Harry Daniels. I am not a Potter, nor will I ever be one. Ask the headmaster or any other professors. I don't answer to anything but my name."

Lockhart was taken aback by the brush off, but pushed it out of his mind and quickly flipped to another test. Harry sat back with a smirk on his face while most of the girls in the class glared at his back.

At the end of the first week, Harry and Hermione witnessed a confrontation between the Gryffindor and Slytherin quidditch teams. It seemed that Draco bribed his way onto the team and somehow Chris got on the team as well. Though Harry didn't know why the idiot was a seeker. He thought Chris would be a chaser like James had been. After thinking about it for a moment, he realized that it was probably the only open spot on the team and the other team members didn't want to give up one of their tried and tested chasers for someone that might be good.

Harry rolled his eyes when he saw Malfoy say something to Ron and the red head tried to curse him. The curse backfired and Ron was left gasping on the ground, throwing up slugs on the grass.

After about a week of being back in the castle, Harry was walking with Hermione through the halls when they heard a voice within the walls.

_Kill! I must kill!_

They looked at each other and both realized that it was a snake speaking in Parseltongue. They searched around the area for it's source. When they couldn't find anything they decided to shrug it off. Thinking that it is just a small snake, loose in the castle.

When Hermione's birthday came around, Harry got her a charmed bracelet that had individual charms on it that could hold one book each. He also got the castle elves to make them a private meal. They spent the night just talking about their summer and some of what Harry had seen and done with the Order.

The following day, Harry and Hermione decided to take out their brooms and fly for a bit. They had their brooms shrunk down and in their pockets as they made their way outside. Luna was in the library at the time, doing homework for Charms class. When they got outside, there were a few people out by the lake, but most were inside. They both pulled out their brooms and re-sized them and took off.

They flew fast and low at first, but when they reached they middle of the lake, they shot upward. They flew right next each other and circled the top most tower of the castle. When they got high enough up, Harry cut all momentum and free fell for a few moments, he got about ten feet from the ground and shot back towards Hermione. With their brooms as black as night and they in their robes, they just looked like black blurs to those watching on the ground.

When they got back down to the ground, they ignored the crowd gaping at their display and Harry said, "Hey, Mione. Let's try what we saw back in Seattle."

Hermione smirked and nodded. They conjured ropes and tied them to the front and back ends of their brooms, holding the other end of each rope, then carefully stood up.

Harry looked over at Hermione, "Race you to the lake."

Hermione smirked and nodded. With that, they leaned forward and launched forward at lightning speed, surfing on the brooms and using the ropes for balance and speed control. Harry crouched on the broom and leaned forward, causing him to shoot past Hermione and get there a second before Hermione. He pulled up short and dust blew out from under his broom.

"Ha! Beat you." he smirked

Hermione just glared playfully at him and stuck her tongue out. They laughed and eventually shrunk their brooms and started back for the castle. They ignored the looks they got and simply talked about their latest Transfiguration assignment and the different ways the spell to turn bees into buttons could be used in a duel. Harry's idea was to conjure a bunch of buttons and turn them into bees to send at the opponent. Hermione was adding a few observations here and there. Neither of them saw Chris glaring at their backs or the gaping looks Lily Potter was giving them.

The month of September passed relatively quickly. The "House of Shadows" returned with a bang. Two days after Hermione's birthday, during dinner in the Great Hall, the torches flickered and went out. The next moment, everyone in the hall heard movement all around the hall. Like something circling them. After a moment, the torches flickered back to life and there were eight panthers in the Hall. One at the end of every house table. There were four ravens and four falcons circling the staff table and everyone was silent. After a moment, a falcon dive bombed Lockhart and sent his potato soup splashing all over his robes. Another disappeared in a flash of light, then reappeared in front of Snape, causing him to jump and land on the floor. A raven landed on top of Dumbledore's head and every attempt to shake it off was met with a peck to the head. When Dumbledore went to slap it off of his head, his hand passed right through it, as if it were smoke.

The panthers at the Gryffindor table decided to take up a spot right behind Chris Potter and his two friends, while the two panthers at the Slytherin table did the same to Malfoy and his group of friends. A falcon also landed next to Ron Weasley's plate and would peck at his hand whenever he reached for more food. Like Dumbledore, when he would try to swat it away, his hand would pass right through it. The Ravenclaw panthers sat right behind Harry, Hermione and Luna, while the panthers at Hufflepuff, spilt up, one went to sit behind a boy who Harry thought was Cedric Diggory, and the other went and sat right on top of the staff table, in front of Lockhart.

Everyone was terrified to move, so when Peeves came shooting into the hall, many had to fight the urge to jump.

"Peeves is here to welcome back the shadows!"

With that Peeves, went to the back of the hall and sat there, watching the rest of the hall. Harry took a chance and reached out to the panther by him. He heard everyone watching inhaled and held their breath. The panther growled at first, but then came forward and Harry started petting it.

Those watching were left gobsmacked. Harry continued to pet the giant cat and when it rolled over on it's back, he laughed and rubbed it's belly. Hermione and Luna took his cue and started petting the other cat. Harry noticed the silence and looked up to see everyone staring at him, wide eyed.

He asked, "What? Do you honestly think that who ever those geniuses are would do a prank that was dangerous? These guys are just big softys."

He laughed at their expressions and Daphne Greengrass reached out to pet the panther at the Slytherin table and Ginny did the same at the Gryffindor table. Cedric slowly put his hand out and and patted his cat on the head. When everyone looked up to Lockhart, he gulped audibly and slowly started to reach his hand out, but before he could do anything else, the panther leaped off the table, scaring the DADA professor so much that he let out a small scream. All the panthers seemed to jump up and rush to meet at the staff table, once there, all eight seemed to flow together into two panthers. Then all the birds took flight, merged in the air, into one falcon and one raven. They landed on the heads of the two panthers, then they flowed together once again and seemed to morph into shadowy outlines of two people.

They walked forward and spoke at the same time, in a voice that filled the Great Hall, "The Shadows are back for another year. We hope you enjoyed your summer. We decided that we didn't do enough to show out school spirit last year so we will try and be more proactive this year. We hope you enjoy the show."

With that, they explode outward, towards the staff table. Oddly, the ink only stains Dumbledore, Snape and Lockhart. All of a sudden, the same three professors jump out of their seats and start to act out the entire play of Julius Caesar. Lockhart played both Caesar and Brutus' wife, while Dumbles played Caesar and the other rolls and Snape played Brutus and the other rolls. Lockhart's voice was that of a high pitched little girl's, while Snape's was deeper than anyone thought possible. Dumbledore's was that of a prepubescent boy.

At the end, all three came back to themselves and nearly every student was on the floor of the Great Hall, holding their sides, laughing. It seemed as though, the three "actors" were completely aware of what they were doing, just unable to stop.

Before any of them could say anything, the black ink that coated them, came off and formed into the same two shadowy figures, "We hope you enjoyed Shadow Theatre and look forward the next show. It will be the play of MacBeth. Thank you and good night."

Snape roared, "POTTER!"

Harry was with the rest of the students, laughing himself silly on the floor. Snape came stomping up and stared down at him with a look of fury on his face.

Harry looked at him and started laughing all over again. Snape snarled and grabbed him off the ground.

"I don't know how you did it, but I know it was you!"

Harry just continued to laugh, a few other students had stopped laughing by this point and watched the confrontation. Snape started to drag Harry towards the staff table. When Harry didn't help him, Snape jerked him forward painfully and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

Harry stopped laughing almost immediately, reached behind his head and put a small bit of pressure no the Potions Master's thumb. Those closest to them heard a small crack. Snape gasped in pain and let Harry go, though Harry still had a grip on the man's hand.

Harry straightened up and stared at Snape in the eye, "I distinctly remember warning you about doing that Snape."

Snape snarled and tried to pry Harry's grip off with his other hand. Harry simply grabbed Snape's other arm and twisted it painfully.

"I don't know what your problem is, I was having a great time until you had to spoil it. Next time, don't irritate me."

With that, Harry twisted a little bit more and put more pressure on his broken thumb. Snape cried out and Harry let him go. He then, walked over to Hermione, who was shaking her head.

When Snape reached for his wand, he found that it wasn't there, "Potter! Where's my wand?"

Harry continued to talk quietly to Hermione, ignoring Snape.

The head of Slytherin house gritted his teeth and spit out, "Daniels, where is my wand?"

Harry looked up, "Oh, you mean this?" he pulled out Snape's wand, "I thought it wasn't safe to let a person with anger issues have it. Here you go professor." he tossed it to Professor Flitwick, who was glaring at Snape.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and dismissed the silent hall. As most were making their way out of the hall, they heard a high pitched voice say, "Who did that?"

Lockhart clasped his hands to his throat and most students started to laugh, it seemed that Lockhart's voice would be stuck like that for a while.

A/N - This chapter took a bit longer because I wanted to bring the Shadows back and deal with some of the bullying with Luna. I don't know how I feel about the confrontation with Snape, but figured that it would be weird if he didn't lose it after the prank. I'm trying to portray him as a bit of a hot head that feels that he is superior to Harry and just thinks Harry has gotten him by surprise and not on better skill. Let me know how I did. I'll try to have another chapter up by next weekend at the latest. Keep giving me feedback, it helps me know when things are a bit over the top so I don't repeat it. Like I said, this is my first fic and I'm still trying to figure out how to do this.

A/N 2 - I've a few PM's saying that Harry seems to be full of hot air and not willing to go through with punishing Snape and the rest of them. I plan for all of it to come to a head next chapter. Harry will take care of Snape for a good portion of Part 2. He will make a few appearances but mostly, he will get the hint. Most might feel that it all came about a bit fast, but remember, it's been coming to this since the beginning of first year.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

****Chapter 5

The pranks towards Lockhart continued for the next two weeks. They ranged from putting a charm on him that caused his hair to change color to clash with whatever color his robes were, to a charm that caused his teeth to match whatever he was wearing. Though, one prank was kept up for a whole week. Whenever he would sit down, he would let out a really loud fart and whenever he took a drink of something, he would let out a really loud belch.

Most of the students knew that it was Harry and Hermione doing the pranks and they were heros to the few people in the castle that didn't particularly like Lockhart, but most of the students shunned them because they bought into his books and thought Lockhart was a hero. It didn't help that whenever they saw Luna being picked on, the same people would be the but of a prank the following day. Most of Ravenclaw house avoided them and barely payed them any attention because of these two reasons.

Through it all, Harry, Hermione and Luna stuck by each other. Luna was slowly growing thicker skin and not letting what others say get to her, but it was tough going. She was called names like "Loony" and constantly knocked down in the hallways. The bullies learned fast, not to touch her things. The wards on her things gave them a nasty shock and they were forced to have their hair and skin turned blue for the day.

The first week of October came around and Harry and Hermione made their way to McGonagall's office. They knocked and were admitted in.

"What can I do for you two, Mr. Daniels, Ms. Granger?"

Harry said, "We are here to see if we can get a refund for the defense books we were forced to spend a fortune on. Lockhart has not taught us a thing since the first lesson. Even that lesson, he gave us a test to boost his ego and then showed us how to run from a swarm of Cornish Pixies. Ever since, all he does in class is reenact scenes from his fictitious books."

McGonagall sighed, "I know that you have probably learned a lot when you were away, but you still need to participate in class, Mr. Daniels."

Harry shook his head, "No, I don't think I do. How is letting him grab me to show other people how he supposedly defeated a transformed werewolf, going to help me with Defense? Which, if most people used that thing between their ears, they would know is impossible. And how does knowing how to keep my nails polished and my hair straight while battling a ghoul or yeti relate to defense?"

McGonagall sighed, "I see your point. I'll take your request to Prof. Dumbledore, but I must ask, if you will not go with your classmates to DADA, then how will you study?"

Hermione answered, "We'll do self study in the library. We can get copies of end of the year exams from the past and use them as a study guide to know what to study for the tests."

McGonagall nodded and showed them out. From there, they went to Flitwick's office to have a meeting with their head of house.

Harry started, "Professor, as you might know, Professor Snape is completely unprofessional and favors his own house. Our problem is that he grades our potions unfairly and because of that, our grades in that class are barely passing. I know that the only thing that matters is OWL and NEWT results, but still. Our class standing is being affected because of his poor attitude towards us."

Flitwick sighed, "Well, there is not much I can do. He is the potions master and is the only one qualified to give an opinion of your skills in potions."

Harry smiled, "So if we had another opinion, from a qualified potions master, then you could do something?"

Flitwick nodded, "Yes, if we had that, then I could take it to the headmaster and if he ignored it, then to the board and show evidence of unprofessional bias on his part and failure to investigate a complaint on the Headmaster's."

Harry reached into his robes and pulled out four different letters.

He handed them to Flitwick and said, "These are letters from Mr. Sam Curtis from the American Mages and Mr. Daniel Richards from the Potions Department at the magical section of MIT in America. They are both expert potions masters and both tested us over the summer. These are letters from them detailing our experience in the area of potions. No one can refute them because they can be verified at Gringotts and Mr. Curtis and Richards are well respected in the field of Potions."

Hermione smirked, oh how she wanted to in the room when Snape found out.

Flitwick smiled looked the letters over and said, "Very well. I will take these to Professor Dumbledore and let you know how it goes."

Harry and Hermione thanked him and left. From his office the diminutive charms master made his way up to the Headmaster's office. When he got there, he saw that Minerva was already there.

"Minerva, Headmaster how are you today?"

McGonagall sighed, "I was fine until I had a meeting with Mr. Daniels and Ms. Granger. They came to me and asked that they be able to self study for Defense Against the Dark Arts. It seems that Gilderoy is not teaching them anything worth while."

Dumbledore explained, "As I have said Minerva, they are only second years. They have no idea how to judge a professor of Defense. I cannot trust them to simply study on their own." waving a hand to interrupt McGonagall, "No matter what their records reflect. That is my final word on this. They simply must be made to see that we know better then they do. Also, if it is brought up, any tutor they request must pass an interview with me."

Flitwick said, "Well, Headmaster, I have just come from a meeting with the same two students." Dumbledore groaned internally, "It seems that Snape is letting his unprofessional bias get in the way of his grading. Also, I would hope that you remind him that vanishing a student's potion with no explanation, other than they are not at the appropriate step, will result in Mr. Daniels once again going to the board requesting a refund." he narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore.

McGonagall added, "Yes, if it happens again, I will recommend that the refund come out of his salary."

Dumbledore sighed, "Once again, I say that they do not have the expertise to accurately judge their potions to know if they are being done correctly. However, I will warn him about the vanishing of potions."

Flitwick mumbled, "Well that's something." then said louder, "Well, then I guess it is a good thing that they brought me these signed and sealed letters from other Potions Masters stating their level of skill."

He handed them to Dumbledore who opened and read them.

He put them on his desk and sighed, "I cannot verify that these are original or even signed by the right people. Also, I have never heard of them."

Flitwick leveled a glare at the Headmaster, "They can be verified at Gringotts and any Potions Master will know the names. One works with the American Mages and the other works in the Potions Department at MIT in America. Either you take care of the problem or I will take this to the board. He is affecting their class standing and they want it to stop. Frankly I am ashamed that they even have to ask this of us."

Dumbledore sighed, "Fine, fine. I'll take care of it when I can. I have many things I need to deal with."

McGonagall beat Flitwick to the punch, "No, either deal with it by the end of the week or I will take it to the board."

With that, both professors turned and walked out, leaving the Headmaster with a need to visit Poppy for a headache potion.

X0X0X0X0

The following day, after Transfiguration, McGonagall told Harry and Hermione to come into her office.

They sat down and Harry asked, "What did you need us for Professor?"

McGonagall sighed, "I took your request to the Headmaster and he denied it. His argument was that because you are only second years, you cannot accurately judge a professor and second years are not given the option to self study. I'm sorry. You will need to continue to go to class. The only advice I can give is use the time to study properly and suffer through it. You also can request a tutor but they must pass an interview with the Headmaster."

Harry and Hermione sighed, they were afraid of this. They nodded their thanks and left her office. At least Snape had laid off of Harry. The previous period, he didn't say a word to him and didn't even come over to comment on his potion, Dumbles had probably warned him to stop vanishing his potions. It was a refreshing change of pace. They made their way to the Great Hall for lunch. Along the way, they found Luna walking down the hall. They went to greet her and saw that she was crying again.

Hermione growled, "What did they do this time Luna?"

The first year cried, "I found my earrings that my mum got me for Christmas smashed when I went to put my things away from Defense. And they somehow got past your wards. My trunk was completely empty." she held her hand out to show them a pair of crushed star shaped earrings.

Harry snarled, he pulled Luna into a hug and waved his hand over the destroyed remains of her mother's gift, returning them to normal. Then the three of them made their way towards the Great Hall. When they got there, they saw most of the Ravenclaw girls from first to third year sitting together laughing. Harry saw red.

He immediately put two fingers to his mouth and let out a shrill whistle that deafened those nearest to him, minus Luna and Hermione. All at once, the hall quieted down and every head turned to the three Ravenclaws. Harry glared at the Ravenclaw table, those he was staring at, shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

He said coldly, "The people who took Luna Lovegood's things will return them to her now."

The group of girls looked at each other with wide eyes, but no one moved.

Harry snarled, "If you think that I can't tell who did it, think again. No one could get past those wards, so you only have a glamor on." he slashed his wand and the group of Ravenclaws immediately turned blue, even a few upper classmen.

They glared daggers and Harry and Hermione.

Hermione said, just as coldly, "If you don't remember, let me remind you. "RETURN HER THINGS. NOW!" her voice reverberated throughout the hall, causing many to flinch.

A third year, Marietta stood, "What are you talking about? Daniels turns us back now!"

Harry smirked coldly, sending shivers up everyone's spines, "I don't think so. I would think that those in the house of knowledge would have learned that touching her things would cause this. Now, I'll ask one last time, then I'll get nasty."

Dumbledore stood, "Mr. Daniels, I insist that you-"

Harry turned his glare on the head master and said, "Stay out of it Dumbledore. They committed a crime against a protectorate of House Daniels."

Harry turned his head back to the Ravenclaw table, "Well?"

Cho stood and said, "You have no proof that we did anything. You could have just cast a spell on us to turn us blue."

Harry snarled, "Wrong answer!" With that, he slashed his wand at them and immediately, their hair fell out and their skin turned to fish scales complete with the fishy smell.

The group of girls screamed and ran from the hall, Harry turned back to his audience, "The next person to mess with Luna will get much worse. And I'll warn you now, Madam Pomfrey will not be able to help them."

With that, he made his way to the Ravenclaw table with Hermione and Luna behind him. When he sat down, those nearest to the party of three quickly moved away.

Hermione said to Luna, loud enough for most to hear in the silent hall, "See why I don't care anymore? Why should I care about people who are idiots and childish bigots? I used to be a stickler for the rules and authority, now, the people in authority need to earn the respect they think their entitled to. I have the Hogwarts' staff to thank for my change in views. When they didn't stop the rampant bullying, I lost faith in them. So I took up Harry's philosophy; Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But if they continue to be arseholes, then show them why it's unwise to get on your bad side."

Harry nodded, "It's helped me out a lot."

Dumbledore had heard enough, "Mr. Daniels, come with me to my office. Now!"

Harry looked at Hermione and smirked, he used telepathy to say, _This will be fun._ Hermione smirked.

"Don't hurt them to badly. We still need some decent professors to teach us something this year. As of now, we have a biased arsehole for Potions, the ghost that can put anyone asleep for History and the witless wonder for DADA."

Dumbledore, Snape and most of the female population glared at them, Dumbledore said, "Ms. Granger come with us as well, Ms. Lovegood, you too."

The two girls got up and swept past them with Harry, none of them saying a word. The teachers, McGonagall, Snape, Potter, Flitwick and Dumbledore had to run to keep up. By the time they got to the hallway with the gargoyle, they saw Harry say something to the gargoyle and then walked up the stairs as it moved out of the way.

When they got upstairs, they heard Harry saying, "Luna, take this watch. It's charmed to protect you against anything. You can have it until I get you one made by the goblins. I can manage on my own."

They walked in to find the three students sitting on a conjured couch. Harry and Hermione on the outside and Luna between them. Dumbledore sat down behind his desk and the other teachers conjured seats for themselves.

Dumbledore sighed, "Mr. Daniels, I must punish you for cursing your fellow classmates. You cannot just g-"

Harry stopped him, "As I said in the Great Hall, it was Daniels family business. It does not concern you, therefore leave it be and I will not be punished."

Snape snarled, "Arrogant, just like your father!"

Harry turned his gaze on him and simply whipped his wand out, then put away again. Snape was again missing his mouth.

Turning back to Dumbledore, "If you can't control your pet, then I will do so for you. I'm done being nice. It does not concern you or school business. Therefore, you have no need to get involved. Now, what _School_ related reason did you bring me up here for?"

Dumbledore's tone grew cold, "You will respect me Mr. Daniels. I can not allow you to go around cursing students. You will spend a month of detention with either Professor Snape or Mister Filch."

Harry shook his head, "No I wont. I did nothing wrong. It is not my fault that the staff does not do it's job of keeping the students safe."

Dumbledore said, "Ms. Lovegood was never in any danger. It was a harmless prank."

Hermione snarled, "So you think that hiding every single one of her belongings is a prank? You think making her walk around in two left shoes for a day or destroying a gift form her mother is a prank? And we weren't talking about just physical danger. We were talking about emotional danger."

Dumbledore said, "Ms. Granger this does not concern you. We will get to you later."

Harry said, "No it does concern her. Luna is our friend. If the staff wont protect her, then we will. Again, this is family business. Why are we here?"

Dumbledore pierced them with a glare, "I am headmaster of this school and you are the students. You will do what I say, or I shall have you expelled."

Harry smirked, "Well, one, you can't because I just need to go to the board with memories of what happened and they would reinstate us. Two, you wont expel us because Hermione and I are the top two students here and on the continent and Luna is the top first year in Britain and France. Three, you still haven't figured out what you wanted to at the end of last year. You wont risk it. Now, if there isn't anything else?"

Dumbledore is speechless, the other teachers look both upset at the headmaster and confused by Harry's statement.

Harry turns to Flitwick, "Professor, once again I request that Article 3, Section 4, Subsection C Paragraph 7 of the Hogwarts Charter be enacted. I find myself being harassed constantly by the Headmaster and am quite tired of it."

Flitwick nodded to his student, then said, "Of course. I assume that this goes for Ms. Granger and Ms. Lovegood too?"

Harry nodded, "Yes. The same rules last year. No contact from the Headmaster for anything school related. Since he has nothing to do with our lives outside the castle walls, he has no reason to bother any of us. If he needs to speak to me about any Wizengamot business, then he can owl the goblins and they will contact me with anything relevant. Thank you professor."

Dumbledore jumped up, "Hold on Ms. Granger, I still need to discuss your punishment for insulting the teachers. As it was before the charter was enacted, I still may issue punishment."

Hermione looked at him, "I was just stating the truth. If you can prove me wrong, then I will serve any detentions you wish."

Dumbledore was furious that Harry had enacted the charter again, but he wasn't going to let Granger slip away.

"You will serve a month's detention with either Prof. Snape or Mr. Filch for your slander against your professors."

Hermione yawned, "You still haven't said anything to disprove my statements. I was completely truthful. Anyone who walks into a Potions class will tell you that Snape insults anyone not of Slytherin. Our first month this year, he spent more time insulting Harry and I about our potions skills than he did teaching. His teaching style hasn't improved from last year either."

She paused, looked at Harry and smirked, "As for History, no one that walks into that class can stay awake for more than ten minutes. I doubt even you could do it. And finally, Defense Against the Dark Arts, that class was a joke last year and even more of one this year. Lockhart doesn't even teach. He stands there then whole class time and reenacts scenes from his books and goes on about how to look good while battling dark creatures. That isn't Defense, that's idiocy. Besides, you have never given another student detention for speaking out like that before. Therefore, you have no grounds to punish me now."

The teachers were staring at her in shock, where had the girl who entered Hogwarts and respected authority?

Seeing their looks, Hermione said, "Like I said in the Great Hall. I used to respect authority. Now, authority must first show respect to others before I respect authority. I lost all faith in you people when you stood by and let me be called horrible names. You watched as other students were picked on as well. And today, you didn't even bat an eye when we said that Luna's things were taken. You, Headmaster claimed that it was a harmless prank. How would you like it if someone took all of your things and hid them all over the castle? The only people that have earned my respect back are Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout. "

Dumbledore snapped out of his stupor and said, "Be that as it may, you will serve the detentions that I have issued."

Hermione shook her head, "No. It's not my fault that the teachers here are incapable. It's not my fault that the education has declined either. I was just the one who voiced it."

As they turned to walk out, Luna gasped and fell to her knees in pain, Harry looked into her eyes and saw what was wrong. He glared at Snape, who was looking intently at Luna. He sent a pulse of magic at him, throwing him into the far wall and pinning him there.

Harry said, "I told you to keep your dog on a leash old man. Now, he's mine." turning to Hermione, he said, "Hermione, take Luna out of here. She doesn't need to see this."

Hermione nodded and walked out with the little blond. He marched over to him and launched a legilimency attack at the pinned Potions Master. Once inside, he started to work. Twenty seconds later he pulled out of his mind and snarled. He turned to the frozen staff members and waved his hand, binding them in place.

Turning back to the surprised Potions Master, "I told you don't make me angry. Now you find out why."

With that, he grabbed both of his arms and bend it backward, everyone could hear a loud _SNAP_! Snapes eyes went wide and teared up, if he had a mouth at the time he would have screamed out in pain. Harry then snapped his leg out twice. Another two cracks sounded both of Snape's legs being broken. During all this time, Dumbledore and the other professors were fighting with every ounce of magic they had, against the full body bind spell. Finally, Harry pulled his hand back and smashed it, open palmed, into Snape's chest. Another sickening snap and Snape's sternum was fractured along with a number of ribs. Snape finally, mercifully passed out from pain.

Harry let him drop to the floor and turned around to face the other professors. He let the spell down, but when he did, the four staff members shot spells at him. McGonagall, Flitwick and Potter were more to stop and disarm him, Dumbledore send an overpowered stunner and chains to bind him. He simply raised his hand and "caught" the spells in his outstretched hand. When they connected, Harry used his control of magic to turn the spells into a pealed mango. The professors stood there, astonished.

Harry glared at Dumbledore, "Do we understand each other? Will you stop pestering me and just leave me the hell alone?"

Dumbledore gaped at him, then said, "We must call the aurors. Mr. Daniels, will you hand over wand or will I have to force you?"

Harry rolled his eyes and cast a spell. A giant ghostly cat leaped from his wand. Harry cast another body bind spell at the Headmaster, freezing him place.

Turning to the panther, "Go to Madam Bones in the DMLE. Tell her there was an incident at Hogwarts and she needs to come immediately, come through the Headmaster's floo. Bring aurors."

With that the panther patronus shot upward and disappeared. Harry made himself comfortable and ate his mango, waiting for the aurors to arrive.

He turned to Flitwick, "Could you are McGonagall take Snape to either Madam Pomfrey or St. Mungo's? I don't want him to die while we wait."

McGonagall nodded and used an emergency portkey to get Snape the Hospital Wing. Meanwhile, Dumbledore was pouring magic to try and fight off the spell, all the while, glaring coldly at the second year. Harry called Gwen and had her get Hermione and Luna. She came back a minute later with both girls. Afterward, she settled on Harry's shoulder and nuzzled his hair. Harry gave her a piece of the fruit and gave the girls each a piece.

After about ten minutes, Dumbledore's floo flashed green and a middle aged woman with a monocle in her eye stepped through. Followed by Auror's Potter, Longbottom, Black and retired auror Moody. Almost immediately, James noticed that Dumbledore was frozen, unmoving. He tried to reverse it, but Harry just twitched his wand and the spell dropped. Immediately, Dumbledore shot a spell at Harry, who simply batted it away with a hand and summoned his wand. He caught it and handed it to Madam Bones.

"Here you go. Don't want anything to happen while I'm telling you why I asked for you."

Everyone was astounded that he simply batted the spell away. No one saw Dumbledore blanch and pale when Harry caught his wand. Madam Bones just raised an eyebrow at him.

She asked, "Why am I here? What happened?"

Harry silenced Dumbledore as soon as he opened his mouth, "Quiet old man, you'll get your turn."

Ignoring the looks he was getting, he continued, "Earlier today, I took care of some business dealing with a protectorate of the Daniels Family. Afterward, I was asked to come up to the Headmaster's office to... discuss how I dealt with the situation. After I repeatedly made it clear to the Headmaster that it was family business and not school related, he still tried to punish me for it. Again I told him it was none of his concern and we got into an argument. Eventually I got up to leave when he threatened another protectorate for speaking her mind and the truth. After we explained that since he had never punished any other student for doing the same,he could not punish her now. He took offense to the way Hermione spoke of the professors here, "

He paused to take a breath, "After that, we argued again until finally we decided to just leave. I have enacted a portion of the Hogwarts' charter that says the Headmaster is to have no contact with me or any other my family. Instead, our Head of House will act as our sole contact with the Headmaster. We had no reason to stay and he had no reason to keep us. As we were walking out, Severus Snape attempted to mind-rape Luna Lovegood, who is my protectorate."

He took a bite of his mango and continued, "Because he attacked someone in my family, I defended her. I... made sure that Snape will not bother me or anyone under my protection again. After I was finished, the Headmaster tried to restrain me for aurors to come and arrest me, completely ignoring the fact that it was completely within my rights to do what I did. I stopped him and summoned you."

The five newcomers stared at him in shock, Moody barked out a harsh laugh.

"I like you kid. You'd make a fine auror."

Harry wrinkled his nose, "No thanks. I've seen who works in the department." he looked at Potter, Longbottom and Black, "I also think I would have problems with the minister."

Moody smirked, "And why is that?"

Harry shrugged, "I think he's a pompous asshole who needs to ask someone if it's safe to take a shit or only a piss. Also, he's a greedy bastard that would sell his own mother if it got him more gold and political power."

Again, everyone in the room, minus Hermione, Luna and Moody were left gobsmacked. Moody looked as if he needed to sit down before he fell over laughing.

Amelia snapped out of it, "Where is Snape now?"

Harry said, "I had Professor McGonagall take him to the Hospital Wing. I didn't want him to die while we waited for you."

Amelia nodded, "Right, let's head there."

Harry stood, "We could have my friend take us?" he gestured to Gwen.

Amelia nodded, when the Potters, Aurors Longbottom and Black as well as Dumbledore stepped forward, Harry snapped, "Find your own way there."

With that, Gwen flashed him away, taking Madam Bones, Moody, Flitwick, Hermione and Luna with him. A few moments after they arrived in the hospital wing, the rest of the group showed up with Fawkes flaming them in.

Amelia went to Madam Pomfrey, "What are his injuries?"

The matron answered, "He has both arms broken, two compound breaks in both of his femurs and his sternum is fractured in too many places to count. He also has several broken ribs and two of them punctured his lungs and he has a severe concussion. He'll be here for at least two weeks to regrow all of the bones and heal the soft tissue damage. All them were fairly large bones and the breaks were severe."

They all turned to Harry, he looked at them and said, "I warned him over and over again. He didn't listen and I was well within my rights to protect my House and well out of patience."

Dumbledore, who seemed to have finally got his voice back, said, "You beat the man nearly to death!"

Amelia interrupted, "From what it sounds like, Snape has been asking for it. Also, I agree with Lord Daniels. He was acting perfectly within his rights as a Head of House. However, I will need evidence to corroborate your story."

Harry nodded, "I'm willing to give memories of each and every event that I warned him as well as the incident earlier."

Hermione and Luna stepped forward and offered their memories as well.

Amelia thanked them and asked Harry, "Lord Daniels, to your knowledge, is this the first time Snape has used legilimency on a student."

Harry snorted, "No. He's tried repeatedly to get into mine, I lost count after 20. He never stood a chance though."

Moody asked, "Why's that?"

Harry said, "Because I practice Battle-Based Occlumency. The only time he tried a full out attack on my mind, he ended up petrified within his own mind over the Christmas break. The other times were just surface scans. But don't worry about that anymore. I took care of it."

James asked, "What do you mean?"

Harry shrugged, "I locked his ability to use legilimency away in his own mind. Anytime he tries it, he will just reverberate off of his own shields, giving him the mother of all headaches."

Amelia gaped, Moody asked, "Where did you learn something like that?"

Harry answered simply, "Ms. Cerina taught me. I locked the spell in place with a pass phrase."

Dumbledore asked, "What is it?"

Harry snorted, "After all the times we talked, do you really think that I'm that stupid?"

Dumbledore said sternly, "I must insist Harry, Severus needs that ability."

Harry shrugged, "One, I am Mr. or Lord Daniels to you. Two, I don't give a shit what you insist. If you can figure it out, then you are free to do so, otherwise, he'll stay that way. And good luck too. I know nearly every language on the planet, both human languages and languages of magical species. I'll give you a hint, it's in multiple languages. And three, the charter is active, you should go through Professor Flitwick for anything relating to me. Besides, it is completely illegal, unethical and immoral to allow him to do that to children. From your comment, it seems as if you know he does this had has him do it repeatedly, on your orders." as he finished, he raised his right eyebrow questioningly.

Moody barked out a laugh, "Definitely make a good auror."

Harry again wrinkled his nose, "No thanks. I think what you do is great, but like I said, I would have... issues. Besides, I like the Mages better."

After they discussed the incident a bit more and Dumbledore tried to persuade Amelia that Snape did not perform Ligilimency on students regularly, they left the Hospital Wing and went back to Dumbledore's office.

After a few more questions, Amelia made to leave, when Frank Longbottom said, "How was it you were able to keep the Headmaster frozen?"

Harry shrugged, "Easy, I overpowered the spell. He could have gotten out of it eventually, but he probably would have exhausted himself."

James snorted, "Unlikely."

Harry shrugged, "Fine. Don't believe me, I don't really care what any of you think."

Harry felt Dumbledore try to send a very strong compulsion at him and he reacted. He snapped a shield in place and those watching him, saw the spell impact the shield. Harry sent the spell back at him with three times the power. It hit the old man in the chest and sent him flying. He hit the wall with a dull _thump!_ Then slowly slid to the floor.

Harry sighed, "Gwen please take the idiot to the Hospital Wing."

Gwen trilled her agreement and went over to the prone form of Dumbledore. She settled on his chest, grabbed a chunk of his beard and lifted him up. Harry laughed at the sight of Gwen lifting Dumbles off the floor by his beard before flashing away.

"I love that bird. Such a great sense of humor. Anyway," turning back to Madam Bones, "Don't worry about pressing charges. We all know he would slip through any trial like a snake." The three aurors glared at the statement.

He ignored them and continued, "I wont waste my time. I'll get him some other time. He's to much of a control freak not to try something like that again. I just called you here to let you know the real story before the Headmaster tried to give you a load of bull." seeing their blank faces, "Ug. Why can't everyone understand mundane expressions? Help me out here, Hermione?"

She smirked, "He means before the Headmaster could give you a load of dung. And that isn't mundane, that's American."

Harry rolled his eyes and nodded, "Also to let you know, since you are on the board, and Dumbledore hasn't taken care of it yet. Snape has been unfairly grading Hermione and myself. We each have two letters from other Potions Masters that say we are at a fourth year, almost fifth year level in Potions. He has repeatedly vanished my potions and failed me. Because of his bias, it is affecting our overall class standing. I would request that he either be put on probation, _again_ or allow us to either self study or get a tutor. Professor Dumbledore has already said that any tutors must be interviewed by him and second years are not allowed self study because we made the request for Defense. So I'm hoping that Snape will either be put on probation or you overrule the Headmaster."

Amelia sighed, "I'll bring it up at the next meeting. It's two days from now, on Sunday. You will have our answer by Monday. Though, from what Madam Pomfrey said, Snape will be on bed rest for at least three weeks, if not a month."

Harry shrugged, "Not my problem. Dumbledore let him off his leash, I dealt with him. He does it again, Snape'll be in St. Mungo's for a few months."

With that, the three Ravenclaws left the office, again leaving the adults gaping.

Over the following days, the rest of the school mostly ostracized them. Mostly for the insults to Lockhart and the Slytherins glared at them for what Harry did to Snape. The only people that hung out with them were the Weasley twins and their three Slytherin friends, Blaise, Tracy and Daphne. Ginny Weasley came around every so often but mostly stayed away. She looked like she wasn't getting much sleep. Hermione and Luna had it worse than Harry simply because most of the girls in Ravenclaw and the other houses didn't like what they had to say about Lockhart.

More than a few guys came up to Harry and congratulated him on what he did to Snape and getting him put on probation again, but then immediately left. Harry didn't mind. He only had a few friends and they still hung around him. He didn't care about what the rest of the school thought.

The bullying against Luna stopped almost immediately but with it's end, came her classmates ignoring her completely. She was constantly alone when she wasn't with Harry or Hermione. The only one in her year that would hang out with her was Ginny and she wasn't all that consistent. But Luna was slowly growing thicker skin and becoming a bit of a hard ass towards her classmates, Like Harry and Hermione.

Harry was constantly glared at, either by girls, in general, or most of Gryffindor and Slytherin houses, for what he did to Dumbledore and Snape. He didn't have any other friends in Ravenclaw. He wasn't close with his dorm mates. They were to worried about classes and going with the crowd, with regards to the general hate towards him. He didn't have any friends in Hufflepuff so he was pretty much on his own minus the few that consented to be around him. He looked at it as a way to plan more pranks.

For most of the month of October, the "House of Shadows" seemed to constantly playing pranks on someone. Most were focused on Lockhart, Chris and his friends and Malfoy and his cronies. A week didn't go by without Malfoy and his group wearing dresses or dancing down the halls. Chris and his friends seemed to always be walking into walls or have the food and benches in the Great Hall move when they sit or get food. Chris in particular seemed to, at random times, think that he is walking the halls naked and runs for the Common Room, or have his shoes grow wheels and cause him to fall.

One night, at dinner, Lockhart went to take a bite of his chicken and the chicken transformed into a live chicken just as it got to his mouth. Another time, he was explaining how he used a rare Romanian curse on the Vampire and all of a sudden, his teeth fell out of his mouth. Every time something like that happened, everyone would laugh until it hurt, but never gave credit to Harry and Hermione, whom everyone in the castle knew were behind the pranks. The staff could never tie them to the pranks either. Whenever they checked the wand signature, it always showed the wand of the one who checked the signature to be the one that cast the spells.

On Halloween, Harry and Hermione were out running a few laps around the lake in the rain. Luna was in class at the time and they had the period off. They had cast impervious spells on their clothes and cast a water resistant charm on themselves so they wouldn't get wet. They made liberal use of a warming charm whenever they got to cold. After about their sixth lap, they saw the Gryffindor Quidditch team making their way back up to the castle. They went over to them and said hello to the Weasley twins.

They didn't seem in a particularly talkative mood, something about their crazy captain, so they headed back up to the castle on their own. When they got to the entrance, they saw Flich standing just inside, looking like he wanted to get someone in trouble. He smirked as they walked in, but glared when he saw that they had no water or mud on them to be tracked into the castle.

They made their way past him and just as the turned the corner they heard, "POTTER! Tracking mud in and befouling the castle? Come with me!"

They heard Chris whining and they laughed out loud. The two Ravenclaws made their way up to the common room and as soon as they walked in, their fellow Ravenclaws turned away from them and seemed to avoid them like the plague. They ignored the idiots, they were used to it. They made their way over to Luna, who was alone on a couch by the fire. When they sat down, they saw her doing her transfiguration homework.

Hermione asked, "Do you want any help?"

Luna shook her head and finished a sentence, "Nope. I'm done. It was just an explanation on the theory of the switching spell."

Harry nodded.

Noticing the slight scowls and glares coming from their housemates, he asked, "You guys want to find a room less... hostile and" he smirked, "birdbrained?"

Hermione snorted, "That's a horrible substitution for 'idiotic' Harry, especially for Ravenclaws; next time use moronic or imbecilic or something else. But yes, let's leave."

Ignoring the glares they were getting, the three walked out. They made their way to a room away from the well used corridors. Once inside, they simply sat down and chatted a bit. Harry asked Luna how her Occlumency was coming along and she told him that she already had it done. Right after Snape's attack, Harry had started tutoring Luna in basic Occlumency. He wanted her to have the basics down before he gave her the knowledge of Battle-Based Occlumency.

"Really? That was fast. Had you already ordered your memories before I started teaching you?"

Luna shrugged, "No, but I've never had a problem with remembering things."

Harry thought for a few minutes, "Do you mind if I take a look? I wont look at anything you don't want me to, I promise."

Luna smiled at him, I know. Go ahead."

Harry looked into her eyes and cast his mind towards hers. What he met was not what he expected. It was a maelstrom of colors, images and thoughts. He couldn't keep up with anything that caught his attention. He quickly pulled out and immediately fell backwards.

"Dear god, woman! What was that?"

Luna looked confused, "I don't know what you mean?"

Harry held his head in his hands and massaged his temples, "I don't know what that was, but no one going into your mind will ever be able to get anything from you. I couldn't keep up with a single thought. You don't need Battle-Based Occlumency. Your mind protects itself. I could spend an hour sifting through your thoughts and still not make heads or tails of anything. All it would do would cause me to have a migraine for a few days."

Luna scrunched up her face, cutely and thought for a while.

Hermione asked, "Then how did Snape not have a headache after his attack?"

Harry groaned and answered, "Probably because he wasn't looking for anything. Just trying to cause pain."

After a few minutes, Harry's pounding head stopped and he was back to normal and they started talking about their year so far.

After about two hours, Luna asked, "I wanted to know. You told me all about your first year and all about the Sorcerer's Stone, but you never told me when or what Mr. Flamel said when you returned it."

Harry smirked, "I gave it back to him while I was in China. I got word that he was visiting a friend in Yutang, a city not far from Shanghai."

_Flashback_

Harry walked up to a strange house. It was a medium sized dwelling that looked like could fit two families in it comfortably. He knocked on the door and an older man, who looked to be a servant or butler, answered the door and Harry was led into the visitor's lounge. Not long after the man left, another man entered.

"How may I help you today?"

Harry was surprised that it was an Indian man, "Hello, thank you for seeing me. I am here because I heard a Mr. Flamel was here and I wished to return something to him."

The stranger didn't give any outward signs of surprise except the tightening of the skin around his eyes. He nodded, then left without a word. A few minutes later, he returned with a middle aged couple. The man had grey eyes and black hair, he stood at just over six feet tall. The woman had kind hazel eyes with curly chestnut hair and stood just over five and a half feet tall. He noticed that both had wands hidden up their wrists.

The man spoke, "Yes, you wanted to see me?"

Harry smiled, "Yes. Though, I don't know if you want him, " he gestured to the owner of the house, "to know about what I wish to return to you. It is no slight against you sir, just that it is slightly personal with the Flamels."

The man nodded, acknowledging that he took no offense.

Nicholas said, "We have no secret from Rajjesh."

Harry nodded, "Before I get to that, I need to know if you are truly who you say you are.

Nicholas and Perenelle both pulled out their wands and each swore an oath, saying they were who they appeared to be. Harry nodded, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a cloth bag, "I believe this belongs to you."

He pulled the ruby red Sorcerer's Stone form the bag and presented it to them. Nicholas and Perenelle gasped.

Perenelle said, "H-How did you get this?"

Harry shrugged, "I took it from the pathetic traps that Dumbledore tried to use to trap Voldemort."

Nicholas looked sharply at him, "What do you mean? I expressly told Dumbledore to move it to a secure location so that we could place wards around it. He told us that it was destroyed during a fight to get it to safety, on the way to the location that we were going to cast the Fidelius charm over. We were moving back to Britain for a few years and wished it close to our home but couldn't take it with us for fear of attack."

Harry shrugged, "I don't know about any of that, but he put it in the school. He then proceeded to tell every student not to go near the entrance to it, for fear of a painful death. Then, he had some of the staff cast traps to protect it. Considering that one of the professors that helped protect it, was possessed by Voldemort, I would say that he used it as bait. I got to it before he did. This is the first chance that I had to return it to you."

Nicholas asked, "And how was a child like you able to get past the traps Albus laid?"

Harry snorted, "Please. Even if I didn't have extra training and education outside Britain, it would have been easy. After I replaced it with a fake, Voldemort got through in less than a half hour and most of that was walking. After him, three first years tried to help out but really just falling into Dumbledore's plans. They got through with a little help from me and a friend of mine. And that was just making sure they picked the right potion and not a poison."

Perenelle asked, "What exactly were these traps?"

Harry smirked, "Well, the first was to get past a Cerberus protecting a trap door. All you needed to do was play it some music and it went straight to sleep, that or stun it. Then you drop down the trap door and land on some Devil's Snare. Easy enough to get through, just use light or fire. Then a room with hundreds of flying keys for a door. A summoning charm or a blasting hex works, though they supplied three brooms to chase after it. "

He paused to take a drink of water, "Then there was a giant chess set. Again, a blasting hex would get you through it easy enough, or you could use the brooms from the previous rooms to fly over. Next was a room with walls of fire on both exits. A riddle on a table along with a bunch of potions, you needed to solve the riddle to find the right potions. Again, you could use a potions detection spell to rule out most of the vials, then use more intensive spells to find out the other vials. Or you could just use a flame freezing spell."

He paused for them to digest what he had said before continuing, "The final thing was the mirror of Erised, Dumbledore placed the stone within the mirror. You had to want the stone but use it to get it. Though, you could probably have just summoned the stone or just shrunken the mirror down and taken it with you to figure it out later. Really basic stuff so I can only assume that it was a trap to try and get Voldemort. It also seemed to be a sort of test. My friend and I watched, hidden, as the three first years made their way through, we saw Dumbledore hiding under a disillusionment charm, following behind them. So it may have been a test for Christopher Potter too. He was one of the first years."

The Flamels were gobsmacked, their friend of the better part of a century had used their stone to further his own plans and almost let a Dark Lord take possession of it. Even worse, he endangered the students of the school by housing it there.

Nicholas said, "Why would he lie about it then?"

Harry shrugged, "Probably because he planned on keeping it so that he could use it if he ever needed to. For his 'Greater Good' crap. I don't know, nor do I care. I am just returning it to you."

Perenelle asked, "Weren't you even tempted a little to keep it? After all, Albus had already told us that it was gone. We were here to actually set some of our affairs in order."

Harry scowled, "No. I have plenty of money, more than I can ever spend in as many years as you both have been alive. And as for immortality, well, no offense to you, but I think it could get depressing after a while. If you know you're never going to die, then it would kind of take the drive out of doing things. I would have forever to finish things, so I could just 'do it later'. Don't get me wrong, it would be fun for the first few centuries, but after, it would get tedious. I would have to isolate myself from everyone because they would eventually die."

The immortal couple nodded, Nicholas said, "That's very wise of you. We probably will eventually stop using the stone, but for now, we are just enjoying ourselves, travelling the world and doing all the things that we want to. Now, I must thank you for returning this to us. Please, tell us how to repay you."

Harry shrugged, "No need. I was just doing what was right. It wasn't mine and as I said, I have no need for it. The people that trained me are my family and they wouldn't use it unless it was to study it. Even then, people are suppose to die. If all of us used the stone to create the elixir, it would be unnatural."

Nicholas was curious, "Who trained you exactly? We don't even know your name."

Harry smirked, "Well, I have two names, but you can call me Alex Shadow and don't be fooled later on if we meet again. I'm not as I appear. I'm a metamorph, I can look like anyone, but I use that name for most things. As for who trained me, well, you know then as 'The Shadows'."

Nicholas quirked an eyebrow, "They're still around?"

Harry smirked, "Yes. The Shadows will always be around. We are eternal, without us, there is only complete darkness or complete light. We keep balance between the two."

Perenelle asked, "What is wrong with complete light?"

Harry answered, "Well, in reality, you can not have one without another. It would be a Utopia and Utopias are just a fantasy. They can not exist because then one would not have free will. Besides, say the world was completely within the light. If someone decided to try something new, how would they be punished if some saw it as wrong?"

"Prisons would not exist because there would be no need for them. Capital punishment would not exist because it would not be needed. Therefore, the person that wanted to try something new, well, they wouldn't exist because everyone and everything would the same. You would have no progress because any change could be construed as something dark."

He took a breath, "Human beings are human beings because of free will and because each person is different from the next. Without free will, it wouldn't be life, it would be a game to some higher power who made all the rules and held all the cards. It is because of free will that we have advanced so far. Well, the rest of the world, not Magical Britain, they're still stuck using bloody quills and parchment and stuck in the middle ages."

He saw them staring at him and blushed, "Sorry, didn't mean to get all philosophical."

Nicholas, Perenelle and Rajjesh all laughed.

Nicholas smiled, "No, it was good. What you said is true. It's just surprising to hear it from someone so young. "

Harry shrugged, "I had to grow up fast. My family didn't want me, so I left. Last year was the first time I had seen them in six years. I left when I was five, after I found out they had disowned me. I went to the goblins and found I was head of quite a few families. Then I left. Only came back because a few of the houses require me to go to Hogwarts."

Parenelle was wide eyed, when Harry saw her he quickly said, "Oh, don't worry about me. Even when I was living with them, I fended for myself. I'm used to it."

Perenelle got teary eyed and said, "You shouldn't have had to though."

Harry shrugged, "Eh, it's in the past. Can't change it now so why bother worrying about it? Even now, I've been on my own for so long that it would be weird to have someone try to be a parent to me. It wouldn't work, I'm used to being on my own and wouldn't take kindly to people telling me what to do. I'm already responsible so there's no need. Hell, I'm emancipated in every country represented by the ICW and by the goblin nation."

Perenelle sighed, "Still, if you ever need a place to stay, you're welcome to stay with us."

Harry smiled, "Thanks." he stood, "Anyway, I should get going, a friend I'm staying with will be expecting me back."

Nicholas asked, "Wait, you said that you have two names, what's your other name?"

Harry said, "Harry Daniels. But very few people know we are the same people, so don't spread it around. If you truly want to pay me back for returning your stone, then do that."

Nicholas and Perenelle nodded. They thanked him and he left. When he got to a dark alley, he walked into a shadow and back to Miku's house.

_End Flashback_

Hermione was gaping, "You mean that you have a standing invitation to the Flamel's house?"

Harry shrugged, "Yeah, but it was mostly because they felt sorry that an eleven year old was on his own. If I ever decide to use the invite, I'll take you too."

She smiled brightly at him. They talked a little bit more, then realized that it was getting close to when they would need to go the feast. They got their notebooks and things together and left the room. After they left, Harry turned and put a strong Notice-Me-Not charm on the door so that they could use it whenever they wanted to.

As they walked, Luna asked, "Could you start training me? I mean, I know that you have secrets, but I also know that you know a lot more than you let on. I don't want to learn anything that you can't teach me but the other stuff, I want to learn."

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other, then nodded.

"Sure Luna, Hermione and I'll start teaching you. It'll be slow at first, mainly because we wont be teaching you the way we learned. But you'll still learn a lot more."

At that moment they walked into the Great Hall. They made their way over to the Ravenclaw table and sat down together, the rest of their house and most of the school, ignoring them.

Harry continued after Dumbledore started the meal, "For example, I can teach you different languages the same way that I taught Hermione. I can also give you a broad overview of the first few years in Hogwarts. I can even give you knowledge of how to use wandless magic because it is taught elsewhere. But more detailed stuff is harder because of some of our secrets."

Luna nodded, "I know. I don't want to know your secrets now. Maybe later. Right now, I'm just glad to have friends. But what do you mean about wandless magic?"

Harry explained, "Well, before wands were made, that is how magicals used magic. They didn't all of a sudden start picking up sticks, putting pieces of magical creatures in them and that was it. They learned how to use magic before that. Merlin is famous because he was very skilled at wandless magic."

He took a bite of chicken, "Most magicals during that time had already been using wands for a few hundred years. He didn't. He is also famous for being immensely powerful. That's true, but he wasn't as powerful as most people believe. True, he was the most powerful during his age, but that is only a little more than Hermione and I right now. You have mage sight, you know we are clamping down on our auras so you must know that we are hiding our true power."

She nodded and he continued, "Well, he was immensely powerful but he also used a staff. Not many magicals used them or even knew how. Staffs tap into magical Ley Lines. Staff users do not use their own power, it's more that they become a conduit for the magical Ley Lines and direct their power. Though, it is dangerous to do. Just like wands, staffs can burn out and if that happens, the users can burn out their cores. Very few people can manipulate Ley Lines without the use of staffs. There have only been a handful in the last ten centuries. Most historians, outside of Britain anyway, believe that Merlin was one. That would attribute to his legend as well. But for safety, at least that's what I think, he used a staff."

Luna nodded, "I think I understand. So your saying that wands were used to help young magicals recognize the feel of their magic so they could use it without a wand eventually. While staffs connect a person to the Ley Lines to direct the power without using their own. Why don't we all use staffs?"

Hermione answered, "Because, like wand users, it has limitations. Wand users' limitations are that if they are separated from their wands and don't know wandless magic, then they are helpless. Wands only offer help in training to feel your magic and if a spell needs precision. Wandless magic's limitation is that it is more for imprecise magic, like shields and conjuring or transfiguring. For battle and precision spell-casting, wands are better."

She ate a piece of asparagus, "Now staffs, their limitation is that you have to keep the staff on the ground and not move it. If you're in the middle of a spell and the staff leaves the ground, one of three things can happen. One, the spell can simply fail. Two, it can explode if the spell was powerful enough. Or three, it can continue the spell, but tap into the magic in your own core. That is why it is dangerous to use staffs. They are immensely useful in Warding, Cursebreaking, Shielding or things that don't need movement. But for offense, they are the worse thing you can use unless the enemy is far enough away that you can take care of them before they get close."

Luna nodded her understanding, "So each has it's own use and each has it's limitations. But wandless is the most useful because you don't need a focus."

Harry nodded, "Yes. I don't have any experience with staffs. I didn't get far enough to start before I came back for Hogwarts. Though, it is something I would like to learn. Ancient Runes are very important for Warding and Cursebreaking. This year, I'm going to try and teach myself writing Runes with a wand and casting through them to alter spells. It's very advanced and most people that go into Runes don't even learn it. It takes a lot of focus but once you get the hang of it, it is very simple."

Luna asked, "How does it alter the spells?"

Harry thought for a moment, then explained, "Well, for example, if I write the Rune for the number '3', then cast a stunner or some other immobilizing spell through it, if done correctly and with other correct Runes, it would turn one spell into three and each as powerful as the original. The same for power enhancing Runes. After you learn it with a wand, it is transferable between a wand and a finger, so I could do it without a wand."

Hermione nodded, "What I'm trying to learn this year is breaking down a spell while it's being cast so it shows the arithmetic for the spell and I can alter it in real time. After a person masters that, you can do it with a thought while casting."

Harry nodded, "I know a bit about that, but it's because I understand magic differently than she does. She will study, then do the magic, while I'll do the magic, then study the theory behind it. That mango in the Headmaster's office, I 'caught' a few spells the professors cast at me and reconfigured the magic to conjure a mango. The first time I did it, a person had cast a spell to vanish my pants. I 'caught' the spell and the people watching me, coached me on how to feel the magic and cause it to do what I wanted."

Hermione glared playfully at him, "And you better not tell me anything. I want to figure it out on my own."

Harry laughed and continued to eat in silence. Towards the end of the feast, Harry and Hermione were getting sick of the glares from their housemates.

"Let's go. It's plain that we aren't welcome here."

With that, Harry got up, followed by Hermione and Luna. They headed for the door of the Great Hall, no one noticed their departure. As they got there, two shadowy figures appeared in front the the staff table.

"Happy Halloween everyone! The House of Shadows wants to make sure that you truly enjoy your feast! That said, here is our gift to you."

All at once, the doors opened and skeletons, cats, rats, mummies and everything you could think of for Halloween, started marching into the Great Hall. Many skeletons and mummies started slow dancing to music that came from nowhere. Others tried to get some of the staff and students to dance with them. If anyone looked over at Chris and Malfoy, they would see a mummy and skeleton fighting over them for a dance partner. Lockhart had his own problems with a skeleton who seemed to want Lockhart's teeth. It had a hand in his mouth, trying to pry out his front teeth.

During all the chaos, Harry, Hermione and Luna slipped out, unnoticed. From there, they simply walked along, through the corridors. Harry and Hermione were trying to explain to basics of wandless magic and not really paying attention to where they were going. They were walking along through a corridor when both Harry and Hermione heard the serpentine voice talking about killing again. They tried to follow it, Luna just following along. They reached a corridor and noticed that there was water on the floor. They followed it along until they saw that it was coming from a flooded bathroom. They saw a reflection in the water and looked up.

On the wall, written in what looked like blood was a simply message, "The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies Of The Heir, Beware." Underneath the words was the petrified form of Mrs. Norris. She was hanging by her tail from a torch.

Almost immediately, they heard a large group of people coming down the corridor. They realized that it was most likely students coming from the feast. Harry and Hermione quickly cast Notice-Me-Not, disillusionment and silencing charms on themselves, Harry cast the spells on Luna. Just as they finished the charms, a huge group of students came pouring into the corridor. Harry, Luna and Hermione quietly made their way to the back of the group.

When they got there, Malfoy said loudly, "Enemies of the heir beware! You'll be next Mudbloo'Ahh!"

Harry sent a stinging hex and the standard charm to cause his voice to take on a high pitch.

He squeaked, "Who did th-" he clapped his hands over his mouth as everyone laughed at him.

When Filch saw his cat, he went crazy. He started ranting and raving until Dumbledore cut him off. He demanded that someone be punished.

Snape cut in, he had gotten out of the Hospital Wing the previous day, "I don't recall Mr.s Potter, Weasley or Longbottom there at the start of the feast Headmaster."

Filch stomped over to Chris and went to grab him.

Dumbledore said, "That's enough Argus! Everyone will return to their dormitories at once." when everyone turned to go, he continued, "Everyone except you three." he pointed to Chris, Ron and Neville. All the students turned to head back to their common rooms. Harry sent a thought to Hermione, telling her that he was going to stay to find out more. After all the students left, the three Gryffindors, along with Professors Dumbledore, Potter, McGonagall, Potter, Snape, Flitwick and Sprout and Mister Filch went off to a side room. Harry followed silently behind the party, layered in disillusionment, silencing, scent removing and shadow charms, for extra security, he used his metamorph powers to change his appearance.

Once in the room, Filch stood off to the side while Dumbledore set Mrs. Norris on a table and started waving his wand over her still form. Lockhart started going on about how he could have saved her life if he had been there. Chris and his two buddies informed the staff that they had been at Sir Nick's Deathday party and that was why they were late to the feast. When Dumbledore asked Chris if there was anything he wanted to tell the old man, Chris replied in the negative.

The moment he said that, Harry dove into his mind to find out what he was hiding. He was slightly surprised to find out that Chris had been hearing some kind of voice talking about killing, at random times throughout the two months he had been back in the castle. Harry used his mage sight and saw that Dumbledore was using legilimency on Chris as well. There was a slight groan from the corner of the room and Harry smirked when he saw Snape holding his head and scowling.

Harry left as soon as Dumbledore dismissed the three Gryffindors and told the staff that the Chamber had been opened again. When he got back to the common room, he silently slipped through the shadows near Hermione and Luna. No one saw him appear, so he simply made his way over to Hermione and Luna on their couch.

He turned to Hermione, "Chris is a Parselmouth and the Chamber has been opened before."

**A/N - I'm sorry it took so long for me to get this up. I have been trying to add more depth to Harry and Hermione. A few PM's and reviews have told me that they seem to get everything to easy. I didn't realize that until now. When I re-read the whole story I was forced to agree. So I'm going to try and add more depth to their characters from now on and not only focus on the action and scenes from the books. I'll try and add more background to the two main characters. Luna too, but no so much until maybe later. Thanks for reading and I hope to have another chapter up a week from now.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

Chapter 6

The following morning, there was a rush to see the _Daily Prophet_. The first five pages were dedicated to a number of very old families coming into the light. They seemed to follow Harry's lead and decided to have Goblin Representatives in the Wizengamot. A fact that many people were not happy about. Not the least of which was Dumbledore. He had had proxy seats for a number of the families because of his ties and contacts with the Wizengamot. Since they had come out and publicly claimed them, he had to give them up. Many people were astounded that there was a head for the Emrys, Le Fay and founders' seats. Though no one cared about the Dracumis and Trisfoum seats.

Over the following few weeks, Harry, Hermione and Luna kept their ears open and tried to listen to anything that sounded important. For Harry and Hermione, they made liberal use of the standard charms they used for hiding (Disillusionment, Silencing and De-Scenting). Luna simply had to walk around, no one really noticed her. They continued to be shunned by the rest of the school and they continued to be uncaring. When he wasn't training Luna or working on his Runes project, Harry was researching both the Potter family history and reading Salazar's personal journal.

Harry and Hermione started training Luna in wandless magic and advancing her in the core classes at Hogwarts. To substitute their abysmal Defense class, Harry called in a few favors and got a friend in the States and a friend in Italy to send him three copies of their Standard school books for Defense Against the Dark Arts, two copies of their second year books and one copy of their first year. During their own Defense classes, they simply sat at the back of the class and used a dicta-quill to write everything the ponce said, down. During the rest of the class, they simply threw up a Notice-Me-Not on both of themselves and sat back and read the books from the U.S., and Italy.

One day, as people made their way into the Great Hall for dinner, they were met by Professor Dumbledore at the doors. When they tried to go in, they were pushed back by a field around the doors.

When McGonagall tried to get through and was pushed back, she said, "Albus, what's going on? Why can't we get past? And why are you just standing there?"

All of a sudden, a staff appeared in Dumbledore's hands and his face contorted into an intense look of concentration. He raised the staff up high, then slammed it into the ground, causing the field around the doors to turn bright orange.

He bellowed, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"

Soon after, Snape came rushing up, bowed to Dumbledore and took a knee, "All Hail Dumbledore The Grey!"

After he was done, the staff disappeared out of Dumbledore's hands and they shook their heads, as if coming out of a trance.

Snape had a scowl on his face and Dumbledore asked,"Minerva, why is everyone just standing there?"

McGonagall sighed, "It seems you two were pranked again, though I do not get the joke."

As most of the muggleborns and halfbloods were nearly on their knees laughing, Flitwick came up to them.

He tried to say through his laughter, "I-It wa-was a famous phrase f-from a book in the muggle world. It's called 'The Lord of The Rings'." with that he started laughing again.

After most had calmed down everyone made their way into the Great Hall for dinner. The meal progressed without any interruptions except for the occasional bit of laughter at the prank. Again, everyone knew that the ones behind the prank were Harry and Hermione but no one acknowledged them.

Throughout the meal, Dumbledore continued to shoot looks at Harry and the girls. Snape sent glowering looks towards them, but ever since Harry put him in the hospital, he had done nothing to antagonize him or his friends. Harry and Hermione smiled impishly up at them and reached into their bags. A few people noticed what they were doing and turned to watch them. Harry and Hermione each pulled out a copy of 'The Lord of The Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring'. Everyone had heard Flitwick explain the reference in the prank and they started laughing all over again. Harry smirked at Luna and got another copy of the book out of his bag and gave it to her.

"Here Luna, I think you'll like this book."

Snape snarled and stormed out of the Great Hall. Most students were gaping at the three Ravenclaws. They couldn't believe that they had to gall to basically admit that they pulled off the prank and one that got both the Headmaster and Snape.

When Dumbledore opened his mouth to say something, Harry stopped him, "Would you like to see my wand? Well, you can't because you aren't allowed to have contact with me." turning to his head of house, "Professor? Would you like to check my wand?"

Dumbledore was red in the face but knew he couldn't do anything.

Filius replied, "No, that won't be necessary. We both know that it would show nothing. However, I have a favor to ask."

Harry cocked his head to the side, "Yes?"

Flitwick asked, "When you are done with that book, may I borrow it?"

Harry smirked, "Of course Professor. It's one of my favorites, Hermione's parents got me the set last Christmas and this is my third time reading them."

With that, Flitwick went back to eating and the three Ravenclaws turned back to their plates, ignoring everyone around them. Finally, after silence reigned in the hall, the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan jumped up and ran over to them. As one, the three got down on their knees and pleaded with the three Ravens to teach them.

Harry, feeling cheeky, smiled and reached into his bag. He pulled out a book called, "Distractions and Diversions: Foolproof Ways to Prank, and Bewilder. Written by Harry Daniels, Naoko Suko, Jamie Cho and Lee Chow". He glanced up to the staff table and saw the looks of horror on the professors' faces.

He turned back to the three Gryffindors, "Take it and hide it. If you use anything against me, Hermione or Luna. Remember, I wrote the book on pranking. Now Run!"

With that, the three fourth years ran from the hall.

Hermione said, "You do know that you have unleashed hell on Hogwarts don't you?"

Harry smirked, "Nah, I was going to give it to them for Christmas anyway. After the beating they've been getting by the mysterious 'House of Shadows' I figured they could use any edge they could get."

The three studiously ignored the glares they got from the head table and continued on with their meal. Afterwards. They simply pulled out their new defense books and simply read at the table. They were left alone by everyone. Harry was slightly surprised that Lily hadn't made any attempt at him again, despite the warning Flitwick gave her.

During their time in isolation from the rest of the students, both Hermione and Harry had, at times, felt the same sickly magic that they felt in Flourish & Blotts. They looked for the source whenever they felt it but could never figure out where it was coming from. They had felt it once or twice at the beginning of term but after Halloween, they started feeling it multiple times a week.

During all of this, Harry overheard Chris, Neville and Ron planning on sneaking into the Slytherin common room to find out who the heir was. At first they thought of using polyjuice potion, but realized that they had no idea how to brew it or where to learn it. Harry almost wanted to slap Chris upside the head when he suggested that he just use his invisibility cloak. Eventually they gave up on the idea because they didn't want to get caught by Snape. Harry honestly thought that it was the smartest thing they had ever done.

The first Quidditch match arrived and it seemed to take over the school. Everywhere they Ravenclaw trio looked, people were talking about it. The rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin seemed to be at an all time high. There were more detentions given to members of the two houses than all of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff combined. During their morning runs, Harry and Hermione had observed the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, Oliver Wood, making his entire team practice even before they even arrived for their run. They both agreed that the captain was completely crazy. They shared their opinion with the twins, who agreed with them completely.

The day of the game came and it was like the whole castle was alive with excitement. Harry, Hermione and Luna couldn't decide who to vote for because Gryffindor had Chris, a pompous ass with a superiority complex and Slytherin had Malfoy, another pompous ass who had a superiority complex. In the end, they simply voted for the Twins. They didn't care who won, really. The game didn't hold all that much appeal for them. About half way through the game, Harry noticed that a bludger kept targeting Chris. Whenever the twins sent it careening away, it would change directions right away and head straight for Chris again.

After a pause in the game where it looked like Chris was arguing with the whole team. Finally Oliver relented and they rejoined the Slytherins in the air. Once the game was back on, the bludger seemed hellbent on knocking Chris off his broom. The twins studiously ignored it, in favor for protecting the chasers. Harry and Hermione used mage sight to look at the bludger and saw that it had an odd concentration of foreign magic on it. Before they could do anything else, Chris dived and seemed to catch the snitch. Just as he closed his hand around the tiny ball, the bludger smashed into his elbow, sending him spinning into the ground.

When everyone realized that the game was over, they all rushed to the Gryffindor Seeker. Just as Harry, Hermione and Luna reached the crowd, they saw Lockhart point his wand at Chris' arm and cast a spell. Almost immediately, Harry knew it was the wrong spell. Chris' arm looked like a deflated balloon. The Defense Against the Dark Arts buffoon had removed all the bones in the Boy-Who-Lived's arm. As everyone walked away from the pitch, Chris could be heard shouting insults at Lockhart and generally, just being an ass.

The following morning, the whole school found out that a Gryffindor first year, Colin Creevey had been petrified. There were more than a few students scared out of their wits for a while after that. Almost no one travelled alone and there were a few scuffles between Gryffindors and Slytherins because the Gryffs said insulted or accused a Slytherin. Even the staff was on edge.

After that, Harry focused on solely reading Salazar's journal, hoping to find something that would help. About three weeks later, the end of November and start of December, he found something. He found Hermione in the Ravenclaw common room, talking with Padma and Luna. Padma had finally started to see that Lockhart isn't everything he said he was. She still thought he was a good wizard but realized that something was off about his books. Harry and Hermione weren't going to tell her anything, they had decided to let everyone figure out that they were all idiots on their own. He dragged her out of the common room and into a deserted classroom.

"I think I know why we can't find anything in the journal." he said.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, Harry continued, "I think it's because Salazar didn't write anything in his journal. At least this one. He very briefly touched on the possible existence of another journal. One that only his true heir can get. But they have to prove that they are his true heir. I also think that is the reason that he doesn't go into much detail about parselmagic. He wants his heir to prove their cunning and find his other journal."

Hermione asked, "Well, then why have this one at all? I mean, if it's not his real journal, then why go through the trouble of writing in it as if it was and then putting it in the Slytherin Vault?"

Harry thought for a few moments, "I think he did it because the other founders had their own journals. But he wanted his true journal to be one that only his true heir could get. One that had enough cunning to realize that this one is a fake and enough ambition to want to find it and actively seek it out."

Hermione's eyes widened, "If that's true, then it stands to reason that all four of the founders would want their heirs to find their journals."

Harry nodded enthusiastically, "You're right! I didn't think about it that way."

Hermione smirked, "Well, it looks like we have something else for us to do."

Just as they were getting ready to leave, they felt Hogwarts enter their minds.

_Hogwarts - My young heirs. I have been sensing dark, evil magic within the castle. I have felt it since the start of the term._

_Harry - Why are we just learning of it?_

_Hogwarts - Because my heir, I have been trying to inform the Headmaster so he can see to the problem. However he has not. I fear that it is the same as last year._

_Hermione - You mean you think that Dumbledore knows about the threat and wants to use it to draw another confrontation to help him decide who is the real Boy-Who-Lived?_

_Hogwarts - That is correct. I informed him the moment I felt the evil magic enter my wards. However, he has ignored my warnings. I believe that this is what is responsible for what happened on Halloween._

_Harry - Do you know who the evil magic belongs to or who is doing it?"_

_Hogwarts - I do not. I can only feel it, not who is causing it. However, I can tell you that it spends the majority of time in Gryffindor Tower._

_Harry - Okay. We'll try and figure out what's going on. Please let us know when it leaves the tower and any other places that it spends a lot of time at._

_Hogwarts - As you wish. My Young Heirs_

With that, Harry and Hermione left the classroom and made their way back to their common room. For the next few days, Hogwarts kept them updated and they tried to seek out the foul magic. They met with little success. There were just too many people in the castle to try and pinpoint the magic. Meanwhile, they were progressing through their classes with practiced ease. Luna was getting the hang of casting without a wand, though she still had to do the wand movements with her finger and say the words aloud.

It seemed that because of her unique mind protection, she couldn't learn using the mind dump. The most she could learn was the most basic theory behind the subjects so they were teaching her the hard way. She did, however, learn the different languages and basic self defense that Harry had given her. She couldn't stand up to Harry or Hermione, but against most others in the cast, she could hold her own, physically.

Even with her unable to use normal Occlumency, she still had near perfect recall. Her knowledge of the core branches of magic was up to a third year by the beginning of December, she was halfway through third year in theory but behind in practical. She had also finally stopped letting people bother her. It was hard going at first, but she slowly started to emulate Hermione and Harry. She was fun and happy normally, but when someone insulted her, she just looked at them until they got uncomfortable and walked away. The girls who had stolen her things were still in detention and would be until after Christmas break.

Over the weeks, all three of them had noticed that something seemed to be wrong with Ginny. They didn't know how to approach her about it, so were simply there for her, always welcoming her into their circle of friends. At first, Ron was determined to keep his little sister away from the "stuck up, know-it-all weirdos" but the twins quickly disabused him of that idea. They simply pranked him mercilessly whenever he insulted the three Ravens. He walked around for a week looking around corners and watching his back. After a while, he got the hint and left them alone.

Surprisingly, Dumbledore had not seen fit to make any more attempts at getting Harry to go back to the Potters. Harry thought that he was biding his time until he felt that he had a foolproof plan. Though, he thought it could be that it was simply because he found out Chris is a parselmouth and thinks that it makes him the real child of prophecy. But he didn't put much hope that it would stay that way.

One night, towards the end of November, dinner was coming to a close when all of a sudden, Lockhart jumped up on the staff table looked around with a frightened look on his face. Two shadowy figures appeared in front of him.

"Welcome to tonight's Shadow Theatre! Tonight, we present the one man show, Gilderoy Lockhart, performing Mary Poppins!"

With that, they faded away and the show began. As with all the other times, all the students and most of the staff were nearly pissing themselves with laughter at the sight of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor singing songs like "****" and "Feed the Birds". What made it even funnier was the fact that during the songs originally sung by a woman, his voice was as high as a little girls, while singing a song originally sung by a man, his voice was deeper than a base drum. When he was done, he appeared to have been conscious of everything he had done and simply ran from the Great Hall.

After he left, the two figures re-appeared and said, "We hope you liked this presentation. We hope to bring you a special show, in the spirit of Christmas, soon." with that they faded away.

Madam Pomfrey had many patients that night, simply for fractured ribs and for passing out from lack of oxygen. She had come to expect this because it had happened every other time "Shadow Theatre" had made an appearance. So far the Shadows had put on shows for all of Shakespeare's works and some comedies from during his time period as well, along with some plays and famous stories from the Mundane world.

Ever since Harry had given the twins his book, they had been going crazy with pranks. They actually used some ideas they had been working on since their first year. They turned Filch into a baby for an hour. They made the staircases grow mouths that hurled insults at whoever stepped on them and even made the walls grow arms that would poke and grab passers by. Every time they were accused, they handed over their wands and were never blamed. At one point Harry had to ask them to tone it down because they were interrupting normal class hours.

He said, "The only reason I gave you guys that book is because I wanted to pass on pranking knowledge. But when you guys start making it hard for others to learn, then the professors will start cracking down even harder. There has to be breaks in between, otherwise, you will have the castle in a state of fear and the staff out for your blood."

One of the twins said, "Okay Harry"

"You're right. We'll"

"Stop causing so much"

"Mayhem. We'll even"

"Set up safe"

"Zones. The Library"

"Classrooms, Quidditch"

"Pitch and maybe the"

"Common Rooms on"

"The weekends."

Harry smiled, "Thanks guys. So how long did it take you to figure out? And please. One at a time or both at the same time. My neck is sore."

The twins smirked and started at the same time, "Well, it didn't take that long. How did you come up with it?"

Harry smirked, "Well, my friends had a problem with always getting caught so I helped them develop a new type of spell. It basically dissects the original spell and 'cuts' it into small parts. Each person casts one part of the spell and when they are done at the same time, or in the right sequence, the spell works. When the individual wands are looked at, they only show misfired magical static."

Both twins smiled brightly, "That's brilliant! Can you do that with all spells? Or only the ones that you gave in the book?"

Harry replied "No you can do it with all the spells, you just need to know the Arithmatic formula. Though some spells are just too difficult for it. The Patronus charm is based on a single person's happy memories. You could do the spell with multiple people, but they would need to know each other deeply and be thinking of the same memories and they would need to feel the same way about the memories."

Both twins nodded and then rushed off to meet with Lee. With that, Harry walked away. While walking alone, back to Ravenclaw tower, he pulled out his map and watched Gryffindor tower. He had taken to do this whenever he could. He really wanted to find out what was going on it the castle. He and Hermione had felt the magic around them more often and it just heightened their anxiety.

When he approached the portrait, he put his map away and walked though. Upon entrance he was almost tackled to the ground by Hermione. He chuckled and hugged her back.

"Hey Hermione. Not that I don't like being attacked by a pretty girl, but what was that about?"

Hermione smiled, "Nothing. Can't I just miss you?"

He smirked at her, he could tell that she was hiding something from him. He pulled her out of the common room and into an unused classroom.

Hermione smirked, "Well, Mr. Daniels. I'm not sure what kind of girl you think I am but dragging me into an empty classroom to have alone time with a boy was not what I had in mind."

Harry smiled, then tackled her to the ground and started tickling her until she screamed out "Mercy!". Harry smirked and stopped his attack. He was surprised when she immediately flipped them over and sat on his waist.

Harry laughed and said, "What's got you in such a good mood?"

Hermione smiled, "Well, one, I just am. And two, I know what the monster is and how to protect ourselves against it."

Harry's eyes widened and he excitedly asked, "What is it?"

Hermione smiled, "Well, let's see. It is a monster that only Salazar Slytherin could control. He trained it to be the guardian of Hogwarts and the castle's last line of defense. He is most famous for being a parselmouth. What beast is a snake, is deadly enough that Salazar would choose it to protect the school from all invaders, even make it, the school's last line of defense and that would live long enough?"

Harry thought for a few moments, then his eyes widened, "Basilisk! But why was Mrs. Norris just petrified?"

Hermione let him figure it out, and he exclaimed, "The water? It reflected the gaze and the power was reduced."

Hermione nodded, she continued, "We need to get another pair of contacts for Luna."

Harry agreed and sent a letter off with Gwen with a request for a pair of basic contacts to protect against magic that needs eye contact. With that, they continued looking for any clues to the secret journals of the Founders. All Hogwarts would say is that they were correct and each Founder had their own place, secret to all but themselves.

The third week of December brought more whispers and excitement in the air. The three Ravenclaws were puzzled until they saw a flyer up for a Dueling Club. They quickly found out that the first meeting was going to be that night. All three decided to go, they were hoping to see Professor Flitwick demonstrate his skills from the Dueling Circuit.

They made their way down to the Great Hall that night at eight o'clock. When they got there, the tables had been replaced by a giant golden stage. They kept to themselves, waiting for the professors to get there. Harry overheard Chris and his friends talking about who was going to teach them. He heard Neville comment about Flitwick's dueling career. Just as they finished, he heard Chris let out a groan and was joined by nearly every boy in the hall. Harry looked up and he and the two girls joined in on the groan. Lockhart was making his way forward, wearing robes that hurt Harry's eyes. Snape was following him in his standard black, billowing robes.

He started talking about how Dumbledore had given him permission to start the club to help the children train themselves up to protect themselves.

Harry whispered, "That's it, the old man is completely off his rocker. Lockhart couldn't duel his way out of a paper bag!" ignoring the glares sent his way by some girls, he continued, "Mione, bet you a galleon that he drops his wand at some point during this 'demonstration'." he finished smirking.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "That's a fool's bet Harry."

Harry pouted and turned back to the stage, where Lockhart was getting ready to show them a demonstration duel between himself and Snape.

Harry snorted, "How about a galleon on Snape. He wins in under five seconds?"

Hermione snorted, "How about in under three seconds?"

Harry thought about it and decided to go for it. They shook hands and turned to watch. Lockhart and Snape. As soon as they bowed to each other, Snape sent Lockhart flying with a "_**Expelliarmus!**_". Harry sighed and handed Hermione a galleon.

"Lucky shot. I'll get it back."

Hermione snorted and turned back to watch. Lockhart tried to play off the defeat as if he let Snape win but it was a weak attempt. He started to have people pair off to duel others when Harry called out.

"Uhh. Sir? Wouldn't it be a better idea to have one duel at a time? Instead of complete chaos where people can get hurt?"

Most of the students could see the validity of his statement and Lockhart saw this. He quickly agreed and called up two students at a time to demonstrate the shield charm. After a few, Lockhart called up Harry and paired him with Ron. The Gryffindor smirked and Harry eyed his wand carefully, noticing the break.

When they got up to the stage, they each faced each other and neither bowed more than an inch. When Lockhart got to two, Ron cast a "_**Furnunculus!**_". Harry watched as the spell fizzed out as soon as it left his wand. He simply raised his wand and then swiped it in a downward motion. As he did this, the carpet they were standing on slid up and then whipped out, sending the Gryffindor second year flying. Harry ignored the stares and walked off the stage.

He turned to Lockhart, "Oh yeah." he quickly performed a perfect shield charm. Hermione smirked at him as he got back to her and Luna. The duels progressed; Luna got paired with Ginny, Michael Corner got paired with Lavender Brown, the Patil sisters got paired against each other. When Hermione was called up, she was paired with Neville. When she got up there and they started the duel.

Neville waited until three, then sent a "_**Tarantallegra!**_". Hermione rolled her eyes and swished her wand and a bubble formed around the oncoming spell. She directed it with her wand and it went around her and speeding back towards Neville. She then cast "Glacius!" and ice formed under his feet, making him fall. She turned and walked off the stage. She turned to Lockhart and, just as Harry did, cast a perfect shield charm.

More people stared at the two second years, but their attention was diverted soon enough. When Chris was called up, Snape called Malfoy to face him. The two students glared at each other and readied for their duel. Almost immediately, both started attacking each other. Finally, Snape got them to stop. They stopped and Chris went over to Lockhart while Malfoy went to Snape. Lockhart was trying to give Chris some useless advice. Using his animagus hearing, Harry heard Snape telling Draco to use "_**Serpensortia!**_". Harry used telepathy to figure out that Dumbledore wanted Snape to force the parselmouth to figure out if his hunch was correct.

When the duel started again, Malfoy simply cast the spell and watched as Chris paled. Harry watched as the snake looked around and hissed angrily. It settled its' gaze on Justin Finch-Fletchley. When Lockhart tried to send it away, he merely sent it flying and angered it more.

Harry looked at the snake and said, "Justin, step back slowly." he pulled the Hufflepuff's robes backwards, getting him out of the snake's reach.

When the snake started to go forward, Chris started hissing at it in parseltongue. It looked over at it and while this was going on, Harry conjured a mouse. When the snake looked like it was going to ignore Chris, he hissed at it and tossed the mouse at the serpent. He quickly conjured a shield around the students.

He turned to Snape, who was gaping at him, "If' you're going to send it away, I suggest that you do it now while it's distracted."

That snapped Snape out of his stupor and vanished the snake. When it was gone, everyone stared at both Harry and Chris with fright, however, the puffs mixed in a bit of gratitude. Harry ignored it all and walked out, with Hermione and Luna. Once they exited the room, it erupted into hushed whispers. Many students shot scared glances towards Chris. Even Ron and Neville were giving him wary glances. He left sulking and with hints of self loathing and disgust in his expression.

The morning after, the whole castle was buzzing with the incident at the dueling club. People were avoiding Harry's gaze and avoiding him altogether. He was used to this, really it was just an extension to what the school was doing before. At breakfast, he saw that Chris wasn't surrounded by people like he usually was. He also noticed that the Gryffindor was sulking.

As he was eating, he felt eyes on himself and looked up. At the staff table, both Dumbledore and Lily Potter were looking at him intently. Harry rolled his eyes at them and went back to his meal, missing their looks of surprise.

The day progressed the same way. Everyone avoiding him, shooting him suspicious looks.

At lunch, Justin came up to him in the Great Hall and said, "I just wanted to say thanks. I don't know what you were saying but thanks for getting me out of there."

Harry shrugged, "Not a problem. I would have done it for anyone. I've been bitten before. They are painful and I didn't think you, or anyone deserved that. Besides, Chris was telling it to leave you alone, but it wasn't being cooperative so I fed it a mouse. It distracted it so I could get you away."

The puffs that had followed Justin gave Harry appraising looks. Justin, for all his curtesy, still was scared out of his wits and quickly left Harry to his meal. Harry continued to eat, he glanced at the Gryffindor table and saw Chris fuming. Harry didn't even need to use telepathy. He knew that Chris was jealous that no one had thanked him. Harry had heard Chris tell the snake to leave Justin alone. He shrugged and turned to Hermione.

She asked, "How's your shoulder doing?"

Harry winced, "It's alright. But it taught me a lesson, never experiment with Rune writing without a liberal use of Cushioning charms."

As he spoke, he remembered the incident after the Dueling Club.

_Flashback_

They had just left the dueling club and were making their way to a deserted classroom.

Harry said, "Well, that was pointless. Though, now the whole school will leave me alone and avoid me at all cost. What ever will I do?" he finished sarcastically.

Hermione giggled, "Oh, Harry, don't worry. Though, I would expect more attention from Dumbles. You just confused the hell out of him."

Harry cursed, "I guess you're right. Oh well. Not much I can do now."

When they got there, Luna and Hermione went off to one side of the room while Harry on the other side. The two second years put up a shield wall, effectively cutting the room in two. One one side, Luna was helping Hermione freeze spells and study them. Luna would cast, Hermione would freeze them. On the other side, Harry was working on writing runes in the air with his wand.

He carefully wrote the rune for splitting a spell into two in the air and stepped back. He took a breath and cast a simple "_**Stupefy!**_". He watched as the spell approached the rune, floating in the air. As soon as the spell hit, he knew something was wrong. A second later, it was like a bomb went off. Harry was sent flying backwards into the wall. He landed with a _Thud!_ Hermione dropped the shield, then she and Luna ran to Harry.

"Harry! Are you okay?"

Harry looked at Hermione and said, "Hello Hermione," he turned he his head slightly, "Other Hermione. And both Lunas. What happened?"

Hermione smiled and leaned down to kiss Harry softly, "You idiot. Something went wrong with your rune casting. It exploded and sent you flying. We should get you to Madam Pomfrey."

Harry shook his head and tried to sit up.

He let out a groan and said, "Ohh! Not doing that yet. Anyway, I don't need to go to the Hospital Wing. I'll be fine in a bit. My head is already doing better."

Hermione bit her lip and said, "I still think we should do something though."

Harry smirked, "You can stop biting your lip. It's cute and distracting." Hermione smiled and blushed, "I'm sure I'll feel fine in a bit. The only thing that is wrong is a bruised shoulder and whiplash. With what we did this summer, I'll be fine in an hour. My shoulder will probably be a bit stiff and sore in the morning but that'll probably be because I sleep wrong on it. The way those rituals worked is that we will heal but still feel some discomfort to anything we don't have checked out by a healer."

Hermione nodded and they sat there talking a bit.

Luna said, "I think you put too much power in the rune. You made an actual rune in the air that had power on its own. By firing a spell at it, the power overwhelmed it and it exploded."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, I think you're right. I'll try it differently next time, but I think I'm done for tonight."

_End Flashback_

Harry rolled his shoulder and worked the last kinks out of it. Hermione noticed it and rubbed it for him. They finished their meal and got ready for Defense while Luna got ready for Herbology. They were stared at for much of the day. Harry ignored it all and simply set up a Notice-Me-Not and started reading his defense book from Italy. He had already read it but was making notes on what he would know for the final exams. He also went through his other books, doing the same thing, until he was done and pulled out his own spell Journal.

That evening, Harry was walking down a hallway and heard the voice again. He quickly realized that he basilisk was nearby. He started following it and turned to see Justin walking down the hallway. He quickly realized what was going to happen and let himself dive into the Shadow Cat's speed. He quickly made it to Justin and pulled him back, just as he was turning the corner. The Hufflepuff was getting ready to yell at Harry when they both saw Sir Nicholas, who was passing by, stiffen and start to smoke. They looked at each other and ran the opposite way.

When they got away, Justin was breathing heavily, "Th-thanks for that. What was it?"

Harry shook his head, not even winded, "I don't know, but I heard something around the corner and thought it would better to be safe than sorry. Anyway, I think it's best if you forget about this though." with that, he took out his untraceable wand and quickly cast "_**Oblviate!**_".

He quickly gave the puff a story that he was walking back to his common room. Harry quickly made himself invisible and made his way back towards the petrified ghost. He saw Chris standing there looking at the ghost and something else.

Harry was disappointed that in saving Justin, he insured that Wayne Hopkins, another second year Puff, was petrified. He quickly moved away as Peeves made his way over. He made quite a lot of noise, drawing McGonagall to the corridor. Harry watched and followed as Chris was led to Dumbledore's office. Harry quickly through his cloak over himself as added protection. He stood by the door and watched as Chris looked at Fawkes and saw him catch fire. He watched as Dumbledore spoke to Chris and jumped out of the way when Hagrid came bustling into the office to proclaim Chris' innocence.

Harry found it peculiar that the half giant seemed so certain and the strange conversation he held with the Headmaster with his eyes. It was over before he could eavesdrop with telepathy and he didn't chance using Legilimency with Dumbledore in the room. As soon as Chris left, he was getting ready to leave when Dumbledore turned to his reborn phoenix and started talking to it.

"I don't know what to do Fawkes. I know what is causing these attacks, the same person that was behind the attacks in 1943. But I must find out who the boy of prophecy is. I am starting to doubt Chris is it. Harry seems to have much more power and control, but where did he get it? I would have known if he had that kind of power when he was a child."

Harry didn't stay around long enough to hear anymore, he set up a listening charm in the corner and left through a shadow. He appeared just outside the common room. He dispelled the spells on himself, put the cloak away and made his way into the common room. He quickly pulled Hermione to the side and told her what he had heard. It seemed that the whole school had already heard what had happened to Wayne. Hermione agreed that they would start researching what happened in the forties the following day. They got their journals and started to go through more spells and making notes on what they altered in some others. Harry also wrote down some of his research into Rune Casting. They eventually went to bed around one in the morning.

When they woke up the following morning and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast, they saw Aurors Black, Potter and both Longbottoms. Harry had never seen Alice Longbottom in her auror robes. Rumor had it that she worked in the Department of Mysteries, along with Lily Potter during the summer. Where Harry had heard this, he would never tell. The moment that he, Hermione and Luna walked in the Hall, all their faces, along with Dumbledore, Lily Potter, Flitwick, Snape and McGonagall turned to look at him.

He sighed, "It looks like I will be going up to the Headmaster's office again."

Luna asked, "Why? The Headmaster is not allowed to have contact with you."

Harry sighed, "He will probably be in his role as Chief Warlock, helping investigate the attacks. They're probably here to talk to me because I'm a parselmouth and they don't particularly like me."

Hermione snorted, "That and they want anything to use against you."

Harry smirked and nodded, "Don't worry. I'm not in any danger."

Just as he predicted, as soon as they were done with their breakfast, all nine adults headed his way, after getting Chris.

When they got to him, before they could say anything, he said, "Come to take me away have you? Well, let's go." he got up and started walking, the adults stood there gaping, he turned and said, "Well, come on then. Haven't got all day. I would like to go finish packing for the break, at some point today."

They snapped out of their stupor and tried to catch up to him. When they got to the Headmaster's office, Harry was already sitting in a conjured chair.

When Dumbledore asked how he got in his office Harry just said, "Well, one, I'm the heir of Gryffindor, two I just told the gargoyle that I had a meeting with you. I was polite and he just let me in."

He ignored the gaping looks and sat there, looking at them. Finally, they shook their heads and all sat down, Chris sat between his parents and shot Harry a smug, superior look. Harry simply rolled his eyes and conjured himself a stool and kicked his feet up on it, sitting back expectantly.

Dumbledore started, "We asked you here to talk about these attacks."

Harry interrupted and said, "Well, at least you invited the other parselmouth in the castle, otherwise I would have felt discriminated against."

Dumbledore ignored him and continued, "We wish to ask you a few questions."

Once again, Harry raised his hand, cutting conversation off, "I'll make it easy on you. I am not the supposed Heir of Slytherin. I also have to wonder about your sanity. I mean, how many times have I made it obvious to everyone that I, in fact, prefer mundanes to the magicals of Britain. Hell, my best friend and girlfriend is a mundane born. How do you explain that?"

Black said, "That could just be a cover. After all, a Slytherin would hide what his real motives are."

Harry sneered, "Ah yes, because all Slytherins are evil. Correct? If you truly believe that, then I have a question. Wasn't your cousin Andromeda Tonks in Slytherin while her husband was in my own house? How about Pettigrew," he watched everyone's eyes darken and Black and Potter scowled, "Wasn't he a Gryffindor? How can all Slytherins be evil? I mean, why would the school have a house only dedicated to turning out evil wizards? The only reason that the Slytherins are the way they are today is because their parents taught them that way. That, and the hatred directed towards them by the other houses and that is attributed to Snape favoring them and insulting the other houses. But I'm getting away from what you wanted to talk about. So why don't you just come out with what you want to ask."

Everyone stared hard at him and he simply sat back waiting. Snape sneered but did nothing else. Harry had effectively put Snape in his place and Snape didn't dare do anything else until he felt he could without consequences.

Finally Dumbledore asked, "How are you a parselmouth? I know how young Chris is, but not you. Also, I am thinking of the safety of the school and students, the fact that you speak parseltongue has many scared."

Harry snorted, "Well, that isn't exactly my problem. It's not my fault that the parents instilled a fear of parselmouths in their children. In face, isn't that fear similar to the fear mundanes had during the witch hunts? As I said last year, parselmouths are born with a gift, just like mundane borns are born with magic. People are simply born with it. Now back to your previous statement. You are 'thinking of the safety of the school and students'? Really, after last year and the stone being put in a school full of children? A stone that you knew was being sought after by Voldy?"

Dumbledore was gobsmacked, the others were stunned by his jibe at Voldemort.

Dumbledore demanded, "How do you know about the stone?"

Harry shrugged, "I figured it out before Christmas last year. It wasn't that hard. Eavesdrop a little on the Gryffindor stooges and hear that they looking for information about Flamel and I already knew about the trapdoor and the cerberus. It wasn't that hard to figure everything out really. But you didn't answer my question. How were you looking out for the safety of the students last year? I mean, you had Voldy in the castle all year."

Dumbledore was stunned, but he couldn't figure out if Harry meant the protections were easy or just what was being hidden.

He replied, "That was different. I was doing a favor for a friend."

Harry smirked, "Well, considering you are still a child compared to Nick, I doubt that the stone he gave you was real. Knowing Nick as I do, I wouldn't be surprised if he had multiple fakes around the world. Last I spoke to him, he was doing well and Perenelle was as motherly as she always is. Though, they are irritated at you for losing it. They know that you used it as bait by the way."

Harry laughed internally as the look Dumbledore was giving him. _He doesn't need to know that I don't know them all that well. But it's always fun to mess with his head. I very much doubt that he will be able to find them ever again if they don't want him to._

Harry sighed, "Look, I will explain to you why I am a parselmouth if you promise to leave me alone. All of us know that I prefer mundanes to you people. As of now, the only people that I actually like in this room are Professors McGonagall and Flitwick. I tolerate you, Lily and you, Dumbledore. Lily more so because I actually think she is getting what I've been trying to tell you all from the beginning of last year, and Dumbledore, because I am forced to. Chris has just insulted me and my friends and given me hateful glares since I came back."

He took in their looks and continued, "James has been with Dumbledore trying to get me back, Sirius, well, you tried to use what remaining feelings I had for you to get me to go back to the Potters. Frank hasn't bugged me much and Alice was kind to me when I was a Potter so I have nothing against either you."

He saw the sad looks in Sirius' and James' eyes and small smile on Lily's face but continued, "Parseltongue is a trait passed down through the Black family line. Along with metamorphmagi. Lord Black, isn't it true that the Lord Black during the late 1800's and early 1900's cast out a mundane magical or 'squib' by the name of Ophelia Black?"

When Sirius thought about it and nodded, Harry continued, "Once she was cast out and her memory modified to forget about the magical world, she married a muggle. Together, they had three children. One of those children, Sophia Knight, was considered a 1st generation witch. She, in turn, married Tiberius Potter, father of Charlus Potter, who married Dorea Black, another daughter of House Black. Charlus was the grandfather of the current Lord Potter. That is how Chris and I are parselmouths. The trait does not need to be passed through strictly magical lines. It can be passed on through magical mundane lines as well, like through Ophelia Black or Dorea Black. So whatever reason you think Chris has the ability to speak parseltongue is, you're wrong. It is this reason and no other."

As he finished, he watched as his audience stared in shock.

Finally James said, "How do you know all of this? I thought you wanted nothing to do with the Potter family."

Harry snorted, "Well, one, I found the family tapestry on my fifth birthday while looking through the library because I didn't want to watch everyone make goo goo eyes at Boy Wonder over there." he pointed to Chris."

He continued, ignoring the glare he got, "And two, I researched your family history once I found out I had the ability. I knew it was extremely rare for the ability to manifest on its own so I figured that I got it from either your family, or Lily's. Since the Evans family had no famous snake charmers or anything dealing with serpents, I could safely rule them out. I knew that Dorea Black married into the Potter family, from the tapestry and when I looked farther back I found Ophelia."

He looked at their gaping faces for a few more moments and finally said, "Can I leave now?"

Dumbledore nodded, still deep in thought. Harry got up and nodded to Flitwick and McGonagall and said, "Nice to see you again Alice," then he left the office. Soon after Dumbledore dismissed everyone else from his office. Once he was alone he started to, once again, think about the enigma that was Harry Daniels, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately...

**A/N - Sorry it took so long. I had 3 tests this week and a paper due next week. I wanted to add more but figured that it could wait for the next chapter. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter but decided to upload it anyway and figured that I could just edit it when I got the chance. I hope to have another chapter up by the end of next week. **

**A/N2 - I give credit for the "splitting spells up" idea, that the twins got out of their book, to DarkLordHufflepuff and the story "Harry Potter and the Master of Time"  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

Chapter 7

At the leaving feast, the night before most kids would go home for the break, everyone was tense, some with anticipation and some with dread. Finally, about half way through the feast, the torches flickered and went out, plunging the Hall into darkness. Once again, two giant cats and two birds, a falcon and a raven, all blindingly bright, came rushing to the center of the Great Hall. Once there, they merged into two bright figures. Then the torches came back and the two bright figures changed into shadowy figures.

"This is our Christmas present to Hogwarts. A special 'Shadow Theatre'. Performing tonight is Albus Dumbledore!" Albus stood, "Christopher Potter!" Chris stood, "Draco Malfoy!" Malfoy stood, "Gilderoy Lockhart!" the terrified Defense professor stood, "Percy Weasley!" Percy stood up and looked around, his eyes betraying the forced smile on his face. "Aaaannddd Severus Snape!" Snape stood, you could actually see the scowl in his eyes.

After the laughter and clapping had calmed down, the figures spoke again, "Tonight they will be performing 'A Christmas Carol: By Charles Dickens' Enjoy."

With that, the show started. Snape played Scrooge. Lockhart played the part of Martha Crachit and Belle. Dumbledore played the part of Jacob Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Percy played the part of Bob Crachit. Chris played the part of Tiny Tim. Draco played the part of The Ghost of Christmas Past. They each played other, minor roles as well.

By the time it was over, even the staff were having trouble breathing due to laughter. A few students had to be taken to the Hospital Wing because they laughed so hard, passed out and hit their head on the table. With that, the night was over and the students were forced to go to bed.

When Harry and Hermione got to Kings Cross station for the holidays, they were met, again by the Potters, Sirius and Remus. They both said goodbye to Luna and greeted the elder Lovegoods and watched them leave, then turned to the Potters with annoyed looks.

The Grangers were waiting for them off to the side but when they saw the upcoming confrontation they made their way towards them.

Harry sighed, "Can I help you Mr. and Mrs. Potter? And others? I mean really, we just saw each other not two days ago."

James gave a strained smile, "I know that, but we thought that maybe you would want to come over to our house at some time over the break? You wouldn't have to stay for the whole day, just a couple of hours. Just to try and catch up?"

Harry was tired of the meddling, he started to give a harsh reply when he was tackled from behind. The Potter adults, along with Lupin and Black pulled their wands out. Harry turned and saw who it was.

"Miku! What are you doing here? I thought you were staying with Mike in Boston?" He grabbed her and spun her around and she and Hermione laughed.

As soon as he put her down, Hermione tackled the green haired girl, "Oh, Miku, It's so nice to see you again! How are your parents? And I like the green. It matches Harry's eyes."

Miku smiled, "Thanks, I always match Harry's eyes when I go green. My parents are fine. They are in Boston with Mike's family. We are having Christmas in the States this year. As to why I'm here, well, I had to give Harry my present in person. It's much better than sending Gwen with them. The way Harry does it, you'd think that beautiful bird was a common post owl."

Harry smirked, "Well, she likes to send stuff for me. It gives her an excuse to show up and eat my food and soak up attention from Hermione."

James Potter cleared his throat, "Umm, Harry, are you going to introduce us?"

Harry scowled, "Fine. Miku, this is Lord Potter and his family and friends, Lord Black and Mister Lupin. Potters, Black and Lupin, this is my friend and sister, Miku. She was actually the first person to scold me for spending too much time reading." seeing the look on Hermione he laughed, "I know! Preposterous!" the Grangers laughed.

Miku rolled her eyes, "Well, when you haven't eaten all day because you 'forgot' because you were too caught up reading a book on Runes. I think I have a right to scold you."

Harry pouted and the Grangers laughed at him.

He turned to James, "To answer your question. No, I don't want to go to Potter Manor, I already have plans for over the break and don't have any spare time."

Surprising both Harry and Hermione, Lily said, "I told you James. Just leave him alone. We can't force him to do anything he doesn't want to. Let's go. Have a good holiday Harry, Hermione."

With that, she dragged James to the Floo. Chris was already standing by the floo, waiting impatiently for his parents. Sirius and Remus gave Harry one last somber look and followed their friends. Harry ignored this and simply listened to Miku explain about year since she last saw both him and Hermione. They talked for a little longer before Miku checked her watch and realized she needed to go.

"I'm going to be late. Sorry, but I need to leave. Harry, merry Christmas. Here are the presents from my family, Jammel, Mike, Erianna, Shadow, Jean and a few others. Here is my present, Hermione, Anna also sent you one along with Shadow. Thank you for letting Harry stay with you guys again, Dan, Emma."

With that, she gave Harry a parting kiss on the cheek, hugged Hermione and her parents, then walked into a shadow. Harry smiled and they made his way to the Granger's car. Almost immediately, the adult Grangers took the presents away from the kids and hid them away. Much to the protest of the two children. That night, they sat down and ordered Thai food. Over dinner Harry and Hermione told the Grangers about their year so far.

Emma said, "Where was Luna? I thought we would get to meet her but didn't get a chance. We saw a little blond dart off the train and saw you speaking to what looked like her parents, but they left so fast."

Hermione said, "She was sorry that she couldn't meet you but they had to catch a portkey to Holland. They'll be back two days after Christmas."

Harry continued, "Her family has a tradition, they spend Christmas with each other in a different country each year. Her father runs his own newspaper and her mother is a SpellCrafter that works with the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. Though mostly she does research and very little actual manipulations of spells. Ever since her scare a few years ago, she vowed to be there for Luna. They travel for Christmas and make the whole thing a family vacation since they don't get to spend much time with each other."

That night, the two adult Grangers gave their consent to let Hermione go out with Harry for a while. From the seclusion of their backyard, Harry and Hermione transformed into their bird forms and took flight. They flew around London and saw the whole city lit up. They flew by the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. They saw Big Ben and even landed on one of the hands. While they were up there, they transformed and sat on the hand for a few minutes, just taking in the sight. They used magic to make themselves weigh less so as to not stress the clock hands.

When they were ready to take flight again, Harry gave Hermione a quick peck on the lips and jumped off the hand. Hermione gasped and watched him fall several stories, then transform into his Falcon. She laughed when she heard his laughing _kek_ sound. She then proceeded to do the same. She fell for several stories, then transformed and flared her wings. She let out a screech and joined Harry on their flight. They flew around for another few hours, they flew over Diagon Alley, Downtown London and sat for a while on top of the tallest spire at Cambridge. They used telepathy to talk with each other.

Finally, just after Midnight, they flew back to Hermione's house and transformed in her backyard. They made just enough noise to let the older Grangers know they were home and went to bed. The following morning, as they were eating breakfast, Hermione told her parents how they had spent their night. She told them how they both jumped off of Big Ben and went into a freefall before transforming. They were enraptured as she told them. Finally, they had to go to work, they left the kids and told them to be home by the time they got home.

That day, Harry and Hermione spent their time studying other animals that they could transform into.

Hermione asked, "I thought that multiple animagi were just a myth? I mean besides the Order no one has ever been one. How were the Native Americans able to do it?"

Harry explained, "The way it was explained to me was that they were so in tune with nature and the animals around them, that they were able to transform into those animals. They were called 'Shapeshifters'. This was before Animagi were around. Actually, that is where the idea of animagus came from. Someone saw one of the shapeshifters change and thought that it was their form. They got the general idea for it and worked out how to change on their own, then told others how to do it."

He thought for a few moments and said, "Not many people know that Shapeshifters are real. Most believe them to be myths as well. To most magicals, even in other parts of the world, shapeshifters and multiple animagi are the same and both are myths. The practice is mostly lost in Native American culture as well. The art is very rare and maybe only a handful of people can do it in the world. Though, that is partially due to it being very difficult to master."

Hermione said, "But last year you said that it depends on the amount of power someone has."

Harry nodded, "Yeah that plays a factor too. Only those on the upper level of the power scale can transform into another animal besides their true form. It's because it takes a lot of power to force your body to do something that it's not used to. It takes less to become an animagus because the animal is a part of you and your body recognizes that. It takes someone that has a score of at least 750 on the Emrys Index."

Hermione tilted her head to the side, "I've never heard of that. Why didn't I get any of this information from the knowledge dump?"

Harry replied, "Because I gave you information on strictly the core subjects. The Emrys Index hasn't been used in centuries. It had a negative effect on society. People started clumping together based on their scores. It isn't even taught in History of Magic. The way it is set is; 0 is mundane; 1-25 is mundane magical; about 350 - 450 is where the average magical is at."

"Higher levels don't really have names, they just are higher levels. Some people that have heard of the index but not researched it seem to have the idea that after 'average' there is 'above average', then 'sorceress/sorcerer' and then 'mage'. There were never any designated names given for certain levels. I guess that people who have a score above 450 could be considered 'above average' but that isn't an official term."

Hermione asked, "Do you know your score?"

Harry smirked, "Yeah. I asked Shadow about it in '89. But remember, a person's score can change as they get older and their core grows. When I was tested the first time, I scored a 673, but that was after I had trained and worked my core for a few years. After last year, I wanted to test myself again and I scored an 789."

Hermione was amazed, "What do you think my score would be? I mean you've felt my aura, so you must have some idea. What about Dumbledore and Voldemort?"

Harry chuckled, "Our cores are about the same size, therefore our scores would be about the same. Take into account, I had you merge with your core every other night for a year. When I was training, I only did it once a week. At the time, my trainers didn't want me to get a big head or lose control of my magic. And since I was younger, that was a possibility." he chuckled at her expression.

"As for Dumbledore and Voldemort; Dumbledore's score, from what I've heard is somewhere around the 730's - 750'w and Voldemort's score is somewhere around the 750's.- 760's. Voldemort may be magically stronger, but Dumbledore has more control over his magic. Therefore, they are basically a match in a battle. The strongest magical that I've met was about a 907, give or take a few digits. But when he looked at me and I let him feel my aura, he said that if I trained, I would be just as strong, if not stronger than he is."

He took a breath and had a thought, "And now that I think about it, I'm only twelve years old and I'm already almost to his level. Huh.. I haven't gone through my magical maturity yet so, if I keep up with what I'm doing, I should top out somewhere around the 950's. Cool."

Hermione gaped for a few moments, "And I'll be the same?"

Harry slowly shook his head, "I don't know. Girls mature faster than guys, so you might be slightly less powerful, maybe around the 930's because you'll go through your magical maturity before I do. But, if you continue to train your core, you'll probably be around the same. Either way, you'll kick ass."

Hermione chuckled as his description. From there, they continued on with their studies of other animals to shift into. Harry had decided on a grey wolf. He reasoned that he already had a cat and a bird, now he needed a canine. Hermione had decided to try an otter. She explained that she had always like the playful animals and thought it would be fun to turn into one.

They continued to study their chosen animals whenever they could over the break. The adult Grangers took them to Diagon Alley two days after they got home. There was a lot of people in the alley but they managed to get their shopping done fairly quickly. From there, they went to a nearby mall to get their normal shopping out of the way. After spending two hours in the mall, they finally went home. Harry stumbled into his room and collapsed on his bed.

Hermione came walking in about five minutes later and Harry quickly waved his hand, disillusioning the gifts. Though, he didn't even raise his head as he did so. Hermione sat down next to him and he pulled her down next to him.

"Never again, Mione. That was brutal. I like books, but normal shopping, that was brutal."

Hermione giggled and said, "Oh, but Harry, I wanted to make sure I got you something good. Besides, you can't resist me when I pout."

Harry grumbled but didn't argue her point. Instead he pulled her closer and started tickling her until she called mercy. When he stopped, she flipped them over and straddled his waist and started tickling him just as much. This went on for quite a while before they called a truce. They spent the days leading up to Christmas just having fun and trying to shift into their chosen animals.

Christmas morning, came and had Harry in the kitchen, making his Ham and Potato Omelets. Meanwhile, Hermione had transformed into her Shadow Cat, shrank herself down to house cat size and pounced on her parents. After mewling and lightly scratching at them for a few minutes, the adult Grangers grumbled their displeasure and got up for the day. They watched as the small cat seemed to grin at them, then jump off the bed. In mid-jump, it transformed into a raven and flew downstairs.

About twenty minutes later, all for of them were at the table, eating their breakfast. Once again, both elder Grangers thanked Harry profusely for the splendid breakfast.

While at the table, Dan asked, "So, what prank did you guys pull this year?"

Harry smirked at Hermione, "Well..."

_Flashback_

It was Christmas Eve, Harry and Hermione silently walked out of the shadows and made their way throughout the castle, casting spells on all of the suits of armor. They Shadow Walked to Dumbledore's office, though they stayed in the shadows to avoid being caught by Fawkes.

They quietly drew runes along the door frame of the entrance to his office and then chanted softly. They used different chalk than the previous year and then cast a spell at the tray of lemon drops. Afterwards they made their way to the Slytherin Common room. From there, they split up and went to each of the Death Eater children that were bigots like their parents. After an hour of being in the castle, they left through the shadows to the Granger residence.

_End Flashback_

Emma asked, "So what did all of that do?"

Hermione smirked evilly, "Well, let's watch." she pulled out a small mirror and enlarged it. Together, the four of them watched the chaos that was going on at Hogwarts.

_Hogwarts School_

In the morning, Dumbledore woke up to see that, indeed he remembered where the Great Hall was and smiled. He got up and did his morning ablutions, picked out his brightest robes and made his way to his office. Once there, he sat down at his desk and glanced at his paperwork _It's Christmas, paperwork can wait a day._ He glanced over at Fawkes, who was still sleeping. He still had about an hour before he had to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast so he sat back and thought about the main problem he was having this year, Harry Potter, _Well, Daniels, since he doesn't answer anything else_ Albus grouched.

He continued to think on how best to get the Ravenclaw to follow his lead and stop being so difficult. He absently reached for a lemon drop and heard a collective gasp as his hand drew closer. He looked up, trying to determine where the noise came from but couldn't. He sighed and took a lemon drop. As he pulled his hand away, he heard something akin to a collective sob. He looked around but, again couldn't find anything. He shook his head, vowing to get to sleep earlier.

As soon as he popped the lemon flavored candy in his mouth, he knew he hadn't imagined hearing anything. He heard a collective outcry and scolding. As he sat up to find the origin of the noise, he distinctly heard a small scream coming from within his mouth. He opened it and reached inside.

Upon pulling out the small candy, it screamed at him, "How would you like to be sucked on you old coot? That was disgusting! You should really brush your teeth and for god's sake, FLOSS once in awhile!"

Dumbledore was still stuck on the fact that all of his favorite candy had seemed to have grown arms and legs and all of them had faces. He was in shock and didn't realize that all of the candies in the dish on his desk were getting up and yelling at him for his "complete disregard for lemon life". Finally he snapped out of it and tried to cancel the spells that were on the candies. When that didn't work, he tried vanishing them and was dismayed to see them grow slightly.

After he did this, all of them shouted, "Well that was rude!" after which, they started yelling obscenities at him. Feeling a headache coming on, he quickly stood up and made his way to the exit. Immediately, he realized that he was in trouble. He couldn't remember how to get out of his office! He looked around frantically for the exit but couldn't find it. After a moment of looking he simply asked Fawkes to get him out of there. The phoenix trilled in amusement and transported the beleaguered headmaster out of his office.

They landed in the front of the doors to the Great Hall and straight into chaos. It seemed that someone had charmed all of the suits of armor into numerous copies of Father Christmas, Reindeer, Snow people and what looked like little children with green clothes on and pointed ears. It seemed like half of the suits of armor in the castle were in the entrance hall! And they were all singing a different Christmas Carol. Finally Dumbledore got over his shock and set off a _bang!_ with his wand. Almost all of the suits of armor stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Dumbledore. There was complete silence.

One of the Father Christmases finally said, "Well! I can say for sure that you mister are on the naughty list!"

With that, all of the characters left the Entrance hall, some grumbling and some still singing. They left the population of Hogwarts shocked. Finally people made their way into the Great Hall for breakfast. That was when everyone noticed that some of the Slytherins were wearing Father Christmas outfits.

After some chuckling from the other students, Snape sneered, "Why are you all wearing those ridiculous outfits?"

Theodore Nott asked, "What do you mean Professor?"

Snape scowled, "You know what I mean. Why must you wear those hideous outfits?"

Draco said, "We don't know what you're talking about sir. We are wearing what we always wear."

Snape went to reply but the doors were thrown open. Everyone turned to see who it was and all gaped at the sight. Dumbledore saw them and groaned aloud.

The lead lemon drop shouted in a scratchy voice, "That was rude Dumbles! We were talking to you and you just left with your pretty bird! And I bet you didn't even floss. My brother saw the inside of your mouth and it was disgusting! Why can't you just magic yourself some basic dental hygiene products or just magic your mouth clean, huh? I mean it can't be that hard what with you always going on about how powerful you are. Or how you always talk to yourself in your office and give yourself a pep talk before each school term. You could use that time to take care of that mouth of yours instead of running it."

As soon as the lead lemon drop finished, the one next to it shouted in a high pitched voice, "Dear God Man! When was the last time you washed your hair!" it pointed to Snape.

At this all the students and some of the staff members lost all semblance of control and laughed their hearts out. The Weasley twins fell backwards off the bench and onto the floor.

During all of this, the lemon drops turned black and merged to form two distinct shadows, they said, "We hope you like our Christmas presents. Have a wonderful break. They will be here for the whole day. If they like it enough, they may choose to stay a bit longer."

After they were done, the shadows broke up into lemon drop size balls and turned yellow again. From there the lemon drops continued on about Dumbledore's bad dental hygiene and Snape's hair. At one point a lemon drop questioned the Slytherins why they were "Dressed in the spirit of the holiday and no one else was."

Fred and George cleverley answered, "Because they can pull that look off better than everyone else." Then started to laugh again.

After Snape got tired of them, he sent a vanishing spell at them and before Dumbledore could warn him, the lemon drops grew again and started berating the Potions Master. When no one was paying attention, Dumbledore leaned over to McGonagall and asked her if she remembered how to gain entrance to his office. When she couldn't remember Dumbledore sighed and realized that someone had placed a modified Fidelius charm on just the location of his door.

_Granger Residence_

The four occupants of the house were nearly falling off their chairs, laughing at the scene on the mirror.

Dan gasped out, "Way better than last year."

Emma asked, "Why lemon drops?"

Hermione smiled, "He is always eating them and is always offering them when he knows no one will take them."

Afterward breakfast, they made their way into the sitting room and Hermione and Harry sat next to each other on the floor while the parents sat on the couch. Hermione immediately dove into the presents with gusto.

She got a beautiful pair of earrings and a matching necklace from her parents. The jewelry was platinum with small sapphires on each earring and a small number of smaller sapphires surrounding a large one on the necklace. They explained that they had protection runes on them and the necklace doubled as a locket. They also got her an expandable, weightless book bag for school. Harry got her a charm bracelet with two charms already on it. He explained that each charm was like the pendant that she got from her parents the previous year; each charm could hold one book. He also got her a set of books on SpellCrafting.

He explained, "I promised that I wouldn't tell you anything but I can give you the books that helped out when I was learning."

She was ecstatic and quickly gave him a fierce hug and a firm kiss on the lips, completely ignoring her parents. Harry gave her parents new watches. He explained that it was to replace the one from last year.

"It has everything that the old ones had but it also incorporates the mirrors into them to. Just hold the button on the side and say 'mirror' then the name. I figured that it would be easier to have those than carry around the mirrors."

He also got Dan a suit and Emma a skirt suit. He explained that they never had to be washed, they would always be comfortable, always keep them at a comfortable temperature and were self-repairing. What he didn't say was that they had dragonhide on the inside lining of the material for extra protection. Hermione gave him a new weightless and expanded school bag and his own copy of Ravenclaw's research into Ancient Runes. She explained that, this way he would have his own copy and wouldn't have to rely on her for her copy.

Oddly enough, they each had one more gift for each other and it was the same. They each got each other a new ManyBook book case. Though it was much smaller and both explained that they got it for their school books, so they didn't have to carry all of their books around with them.

From Luna, Harry got a book on Runes found in Holland and Hermione got a book on SpellCrafting that Luna convinced her mum to give her. Harry got Luna a set of books on rare magical creatures from the States and Hermione got her a weightless book bag. Both Harry and Hermione went in halves for a ManyBook book case for her books, both personal and for her school books.

It turned out that Miku got Hermione a book on SpellCrafting from India and Harry a book on Dueling tactics from Hawaii. Ms. Cerina got them both a book on Mind Magics and Shadow got them a book on Advanced Shadow Magic. Harry got an auto-sizing, leather jacket that had 5 magically expanded pockets from Jammel. Mike, a friend from the States, got him a pair of black sunglasses that acted like Omnioculars. From Jean, his old dueling partner, he got a special dueler's wand. It shot spells out but only simulated the effects.

Jean explained in a note:

_Dear Alex_

_I thought this might be good for you to have. It allows you to cast any spells out of it, but only simulates the effects. It's all an illusion. I thought it could be useful to try new spells out without any chance of someone getting hurt. Hope to see you soon. Pierre says hello. He's now in his fourth year at Beauxbatons. _

_Hope you have a great Christmas_

_Jean-Claude_

He got a few other things from his friends in China but they were mostly for pranks. Hermione got a few things from the rest of her family, a few books for school (Mundane) and a new copy of what Harry thought looked like a romance novel. He didn't get a good look because Hermione hid it real quickly.

She said, "It's my guilty pleasure. I might tell you some time."

Harry smiled and nodded his acceptance. Just as they were cleaning up the trash, three owls flew through the window. One Harry immediately recognized as a Gringotts owl, the other two he didn't know. It turned out that Hermione got Ragnok a book on Ancient Chinese swordsmanship, in return he gave her a book on goblin magic. Harry gave Ragnok a copy of a book on Battle Magic, written by Godric Gryffindor. In it, there are many examples of very old Goblin magic. In return, Ragnok gave Harry hardened dragonhide dueling armor for his torso.

One of the other owls, a regal looking hawkowl, had a note and two shrunken down books. They turned out to be from the Flamels. The note said:

_Dear Harry, Hermione_

_Yes, we asked around and found out from our friend, Erianna, that Ms. Granger is the friend that Harry told us about. We just wanted to thank you again and decided to give you these for Christmas._

_Thank you again._

_Nick and Perenelle Flamel_

_PS. Hermione, the offer to visit our house that we gave to Harry is extended to you as well. Anna told us how close you two were._

Hermione was speechless. After a few moments gaping, she tore off the wrapping on the gifts and let out a small _eep!_ Harry looked over and saw that they gave her "The Basics of Alchemy: An Amalgamation of All Magic By Nicholas Flamel". He quickly unwrapped his gift and saw that it was the same book.

They flipped through a few pages then Harry remembered the other strange owl. He walked up to it and realized that he did recognize it. He sighed and took the card off of it.

He quickly read through it;

_Dear Harry_

_I know that you told us last year that you don't want anything from us. But I thought I would try again. I want to make it completely clear, I don't want anything in return, I just wanted to give you something for Christmas. I know that you have every reason to hate us for what we did and what we were going to do. _

_I just wanted to say that I am truly sorry for that. I wanted to give this to you simply for giving me the chance to see you again. You would be completely within your rights to hate us and completely ignore us but you don't. You are civil and even pleasant towards us, when we aren't hounding you. For that, I just wanted to say thank you._

_We couldn't have raised you any better than the way you have been. I have finally admitted that you are correct. We are not your family, we gave up the right to call ourselves that when we disowned you. Your true family did a wonderful job and I am thankful for that._

_Anyway, just wanted to wish you a Happy Christmas_

_Lily Potter_

_PS. Don't tell James or Albus about this, they don't know that I sent it to you. I may have come to understand the truth, but they haven't._

Harry let a small smirk appear on his face as he finished reading it. He felt a small weight leave his shoulders.

He muttered, "Maybe there's hope for her yet."

He put the letter away and pulled out a gift certificate for a shop in France that strictly dealt with Runes. Harry put the stuff away and gave the owl an owl treat before watching it leave. He called Gwen and wrote a short note and gave it to her.

"Find Lily Potter when she is alone and give this to her please." Gwen trilled and nuzzled Harry's cheek before flashing away.

_Potter Residence_

Lily walked into her office and closed the door. They had just finished unwrapping presents and James, Sirius, Remus, Frank, Neville and Chris were outside flying on their brooms. The moment she closed the door, a burst of white flames startled her until she recognized Harry's phoenix, Gwen. She smiled when she didn't see her letter and gift returned to her. She gently untied the letter from Gwen's leg and opened it.

It read two simple words, but they meant the world to Lily. They meant that she may still have a chance to get to know her lost son.

_Thank you_

She smiled at the black bird and it nuzzled her fingers, trilled and flashed away.

_Granger Residence_

Harry and Hermione quickly got together what they were going to give the professors at Hogwarts. Harry was giving Flitwick a dueling journal that the professor expressed an interest in last year. He got McGonagall a book Transfiguration of Gases and liquids. It was fairly new theories being developed by the Transfiguration Department at MIT. He got Sprout a book on plants in Bermuda.

Hermione got Flitwick a special Dueling sphere that would send a predetermined set of spells at the dueler, it would shield and even reflect some spells sent towards it. She got McGonagall a Journal on Transfiguration; Author unknown. Of course, Hermione knew who the author was, but telling the professor that it was written by Morgana Le Fay would be telling people things she didn't want known. She got a special book on plants from the Outback for the plant loving professor.

They both charmed a special mirror for Lockhart and laughed evilly at the upcoming fun. They didn't really know what to get Ginny but decided to get her a Neverending journal from Hermione and a charmed fountain pen from Harry. The pen would always come back to the journal if lost or forgotten and would never run out of ink. Hermione charmed the journal so that no one could read it except for Ginny.

Finally. Harry wrote a note to the Weasley Twins and told them that their present was the book he gave them. Hermione got them a box of mundane pranks that could be bought at a mall along with a few new spells that she came up with. Harry called Gwen and had her take the presents to Hogwarts.

_Hogwarts School_

In the Great Hall, the Lemon drops were climbing all over the staff and students and walking along the table, around the platters of food. The students and most of the staff had learned to ignore them, however, the little candies seemed determined to get Dumbledore to clean his mouth and for Snape to wash his hair. A few had taken to sitting in front of Ron Weasley and yelling out insults whenever the boy would forget his manners, which happened a lot.

As the meal was winding down, there was a flash of white fire above Snape's chair. As was custom, he jumped and spilled his goblet of water of pumpkin juice on the table.

Unfortunately, it soaked a lemon drop and it yelled, "What the hell was that for? Did you have to drench me in whatever you were drinking? I mean, heck you could have used it to wash yourself! And another thing.."

People tuned the little candy out and watched as Gwen flew to McGonagall, then to Flitwick, Sprout, the twins and finally Lockhart. Everyone turned to the twins, remembering with trepidation, what Harry had gotten them the year before.

One of them said cheekily, "Well darn brother of mine."

The other answered, "Indeed brother."

"It seems as though"

"Little Harrikins has"

"Already gave us our"

"Present in the form"

"Of That wonderful book."

Everyone sighed in relief. McGonagall opened her own gifts and smiled, then showed them both to Filius, who showed her his. Sprout smiled and showed her gift to her colleagues. Flitwick smiled and gave the phoenix some of his breakfast and then watched as it flashed away. Unseen to everyone but the twins, Lockhart unwrapped his gift. He saw that it was a mirror. He turned it over to look into it and let out an unbelievably loud shriek. He quickly dropped the mirror and ran from the Great Hall.

Everyone gaped at him, then turned to look at the mirror, laying on the table. Flitwick carefully picked up the mirror and brought it towards himself. He looked at it and started laughing and actually fell out of his chair. McGonagall reached for it and picked up the mirror. She looked at it and a small smile made its way on her face. The mirror made its way around the table and had many students laughing. It showed an image of someone who looked like Lockhart yet had pasty, blotchy skin. The image had thinning hair and even completely bald in some spots and the teeth were green and falling out. Though even with all of this, it was still recognizable as Gilderoy Lockhart.

After everyone calmed down, the Weasley twins stood up and walked out, but as they got to the door they said loudly, "Come brother. Let's try out some of these new spells Hermione gave us."

They smirked at the shocked looks on the staff's faces and then ran out of the Great Hall.

McGonagall sighed, "Those two Ravens are going to be the death of me."

Flitwick just nodded and sighed.

_Granger Residence_

Harry and Hermione watched as the mirror was passed around and laughed with everyone else. They spent the rest of the day with the elder Grangers. They showed the Grangers what they had been doing so far into the year. They went over to Luna's house for the day a few days after the new year.

Before they knew it, they were back on the train, on the way back to Hogwarts. When they arrived, they put their things away and went walking around the castle before curfew. Luna went with them and the three of them caught up with each other. They also found Ginny and gave her the presents that they got for her. They had had to order the journal because Hermione wanted to get a specific one and Harry thought that the gifts would be better if they went together.

When they found her, they gave the gifts to her, Harry said, "We didn't really know what to get you but thought these would be good."

Ginny smiled and hugged both Harry and Hermione.

Hermione explained, "The journal will never run out of paper, it can only be opened by you and it will always come back to your trunk or a place where you choose. I also charmed it so that it would give you a nice message whenever you open it, that way you can write in it when you're down and it'll make you feel slightly better. The pen is charmed to never run out of ink and always return to the journal. We figured that with you your brothers being who they are, you might like it."

Ginny smiled and said, "Thank you. They are always trying to look for my diary to read it but so far I've been lucky but knowing the twins, they'll find it eventually. And thank you for the charm."

Harry smiled, "Well, we noticed that you seemed kind of down lately and thought we would help out a friend."

Ginny smiled and hugged them again. Luna handed her, her present, a book on various charms.

"Because I noticed that you seem to like that class the most."

Ginny smiled. After that, the the four of them spent the rest of the evening hanging out. Harry and Hermione showed Ginny the room where they spent most of their time with Luna. They showed her a bit of the basics of Charms and Transfiguration. Harry also gave her his books that he substituted for Lockhart's. He told her that he would get another copy for himself. After that night, they started spending more time with Ginny and she seemed to get out of the funk she had been in.

After a few weeks, Harry and Hermione were working out and doing their katas in the classroom they had taken over, when Gwen flashed in. She had a package and a note with her.

Harry read the note to Hermione:

_Dear Harry, Hermione_

_Sorry it's taken so long, but the original contacts that I gave you at the beginning of the summer weren't made to take the killing stare of a Basilisk. So I had to make new ones. The two pairs of contacts in the green boxes are for you two. The pair in the red box are for your friend. Your pairs have everything the old ones have but have better protection. Your friend's just have the protection._

_I always appreciate a challenge and this has been a good one._

_Thank you,_

_Carter_

_Deputy Researcher, MIT_

Harry and Hermione smiled and quickly put them in. They put their old pair in the cases to keep them safe, then banished them to their trunks. They quickly made their way to find Luna to give her, her own pair. They found her walking down a hallway, looking for them. It was a Sunday so they quickly made their way to their classroom. They gave her the contacts and told her what they were for.

When they gave the contacts to Luna, she asked, "Why can't you just tell the professors? And what about Ginny?"

Harry reasoned, "Don't worry, I have charms on her to let me know if she is in danger. I can be there in to why we can't go to the teachers, well, they would ask how we know about it and other questions that we don't want them to ask. Don't worry. We are trying to figure out how it's getting around."

Luna thought for a moment, 'Well, couldn't it just use the pipes? I mean, from what little I know of the muggle world, they use a different system then the magical world. They use pressure and different, more modern plumbing. Magicals use gravity. We never tried to fix and improve on a system that works, so most of our plumbing is based on gravity; long, giant tunnels that go downward to wherever they end up."

Harry whistled, "I would have never of thought of that. Most other countries don't have plumbing at all. They just have conjuration Runes on the taps, for running water and vanishing Runes on the drains, to take it away."

Luna nodded, "Yes, my family has that too. Not many other places in England have it though. It was just easier to leave the system as it is."

Hermione interrupted, "I think we are getting away from the subject at hand. So, you saying that the pipes and all the plumbing in Hogwarts are huge? Big enough for a giant, thousand year old snake to move around it?"

Luna nodded and both Harry and Hermione looked at each other and said, "Hold on Luna."

_Harry - Hogwarts, are you there?_

_Hogwarts - I am my young heirs._

_Hermione - Has the evil magic been spending any extra time around an entrance to the plumbing? Like the kitchens or bathrooms or anything like that?_

_Hogwarts - Yes. I have felt it many times in a girls lavatory._

_Harry - Which lavatory?_

_Hogwarts - On the second floor._

_Harry - That's where Filch's cat was petrified on Halloween!_

_Hermione - Thank you Hogwarts._

_Hogwarts - You are welcome._

Harry looked at Hermione, "Wasn't there a bathroom near the site of the first attack?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes. It's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."

Harry asked, "Moaning Mrytle?"

Luna answered before Hermione could, "Yes, she's the ghost of a girl that was killed in 1943."

Harry and Hermione looked at her and she said, "I spent some time there when people were trying to bully me. Mrytle seemed to take comfort in knowing that she wasn't the only miserable person in the castle. She told me, during one of her more empathetic moments, how she died. I guess that there were attacks going on during the school year. Hogwarts was ready to be shut down."

Harry and Hermione glanced at Hermione and Luna continued, "She was in the bathroom because someone was making fun of her glasses. I guess she heard something, she claimed it was a made up language or something. She thought it was a boy and she told him to go away. When she opened her cubicle, she saw yellow eyes and died."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and got a determined look on their faces. They told Luna to go back to the common room. She put her contacts in and went back up to the common room. After she left, Harry and Hermione made their way to the Girls Lavatory on the second floor.

**A/N - I know, cliffhanger. I hate them too but I wanted to get this up and start the next chapter off with a bang. Don't worry. I have a twist that will keep Part 2 going for a while longer. A few chapters at least. I wasn't too sure about this chapter. I had a lot of writer's block on it. I'll try to have the next one up within a week but may be a few days later, I have a Psych paper I need to write. As always, keep up with the reviews. They give me a reason to keep writing and help me see where I should go with the story.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

Chapter 7

Harry and Hermione quickly walked through a shadow and into the Girls Lavatory on the Second Floor.

Hermione called out, "Myrtle? Are you here?"

The ghost of a teenage girl came floating out of a stall towards the back of the room. Even transparent, Harry could see tear stains on her cheeks.

She hiccuped, "W-What do you want? Come to mock me again?"

Harry softly said, "No Myrtle. We aren't here to mock you."

Myrtle looked at him and said, "What are you doing in here? This is a girls bathroom!"

Harry jumped back slightly at the abrupt question, he answered, "I came here to ask you a question. That's all. I would never tease you Myrtle."

The ghost stared hard at him for a few moments, then nodded hesitantly.

Harry and Hermione let out a breath and she asked, "We would like to know how you died."

Myrtle's entire demeanor changed, she seemed genuinely happy.

"Oh it was dreadful. There was a girl, Olive Hornby, she was teasing me again, about my glasses. I came in here to hide and to cry alone. When I was in here, I heard someone else come in. I wanted to be alone so I was quiet, hoping they would leave. Then I heard the person speak, it was like a made up language. When I realized it was a boy, I threw open my cubicle door to tell him to go away, and I died."

Harry was confused, "That was it?"

Myrtle nodded, "Yes. The last thing I remember seeing was a pair of big yellow eyes over by the sinks."

Harry glanced at the sinks and then back to Myrtle, "Thank you Myrtle. I'm sorry that no one comes to visit you anymore. I'll try to come visit you another time. Feel free to look for me in the castle if you want to talk."

Hermione smiled at Harry, "Me too Myrtle."

The ghost gave them a small smile, then seemed to get slightly embarrassed when Harry smiled back and she dove into her toilet. Harry and Hermione looked at each other and shrugged.

Harry said, "Okay. So we know that the entrance is by the sinks, lets go to the trunks, get our armor on and meet back here in ten minutes."

Hermione nodded and they both shadow walked to the training room that was in their trunks. Harry put on his black, hardened Basilisk armor and put his "British" wand away, so he wasn't tempted to use it. He was glad that he had decided to make Hermione an extra, untraceable wand over the course of his stay in India. He just needed to add a drop of her blood to it to attune it to her. He was pretty sure that it would be a match. Over the course of the last year, he got a very good feel for her magic and knew her personality just as well as she knew his.

He Shadow Walked back to the Lavatory and found Hermione waiting already. She had on her black, form fitting armor. He took a moment to admire her before shaking his head. He noticed that she also had her special cloak that Carter given them over the summer. Once activated, it would cancel their scent, any sound they made and disillusion them. It also had the obscuring charm that all Unspeakables had on their cloaks. It was dark charcoal in color. He smiled at her.

"Hope I didn't keep you waiting." Hermione smirked, "I had to get this though."

He pulled out her wand and showed it to her.

"I made it while I was in India. I was going to give it to you this summer. I was going to surprise you with it, but we might need wands and these are untraceable."

Hermione gaped at the beautiful wand. It was a dark, almost black, red color, with a twisted body. It almost looked braided as it tapered down to a point. She turned to Harry and threw her arms around his neck and gave him a solid kiss on the lips and continued to softly repeat "Thank you!"

He smiled and kissed her back, "It's made of Indian Rosewood, 11½ in. Dual core of Shadow Phoenix Flight feather and the heartstring of an Opaleye dragon. I just need a drop of your blood and it will be tied to you and only you."

Hermione gazed at the wand in her hand and absently stuck her hand out towards Harry. He jabbed her finger and took a drop of blood, took her new wand and dropped the blood onto the tip of the wand and a spark of magic went off and blinded them both for a few moments. When he was done, he handed it back to her and had her test it. She waved it and a flock of birds burst from it.

She said, "How did you make it?"

Harry smiled, "It wasn't just me. I had a friend of mine shape it after I got the wood and cores. I never was good at shaping the wood for a wand. I didn't even do mine. I just got the wood and cores."

He held his Blackwood wand up for her to see and she saw a black panther and a shadow phoenix in flight. The two animals wound around the handle of the wood and the second half of the wand looked to be covered in dark grey flames.

He continued, "I wasn't sure that it would work for you, but I thought it would. I got to know how your magic felt and just went from memory."

Hermione suddenly remembered what he said, "Wait, Shadow Phoenix feather? Gwen?"

Harry smiled and nodded, "She really is quite fond of you."

Hermione smiled, then her face went serious, "Okay. Lets go down there and do this. The longer we wait, the more chances that it could get loose somewhere else."

Harry nodded and he hissed, "Open". Almost immediately, the sinks came apart and one of them sunk into the floor. They watched until it was done, then stared down the hole that was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. They looked at each other and nodded. Harry jumped down first and slowed his fall with an "**Arresto Momentum**". Not long after he landed, Hermione followed and landed right next to him. They both dove into the strength and speed of the Shadow Cats. Their senses heightened and they could hear everything.

They made their way forward and came upon a huge pile of what looked like snake skin.

Hermione gasped, "Just how big is this thing?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't know. But it's been down here since Salazar was alive so I would guess, quite large."

They both took a deep breath and proceeded forward. Eventually, they came to a circular door with interlocking snakes. They looked at each other and readied themselves. Harry hissed at the lock and it engaged the center snake. It slowly opened forward and they finally laid eyes on the fabled Chamber of Secrets. They walked forward and kept their eyes open. They made it to the far end of the Chamber and had seen nothing.

Hermione said, "Maybe there is like a special phrase you have to use to get the Basilisk to come out."

Harry nodded, "Yeah, but what?"

Hermione thought, then said, "Well, we know that the most likely culprit for opening the Chamber in the '40s was Voldemort, so the passphrase probably has to do with either him or Salazar."

Harry nodded, "Well, if it were me, then I would probably have changed it after a century. To make it easier to remember and not say on accident. We know that he is a big pure blood supporter."

Hermione continued, "We know that he is a parseltongue and because you inherited the title of Lord Slytherin from him when you beat him, he was in fact the heir. We also know that he is proud of both being the heir and being a parseltongue." Hermione smiled, "I got it."

She hissed, "Sssspeak to me. Sssslytherin, Greatessst of Hogwartssss four!"

Harry nodded, "I get it. Because he was a parseltongue, he can speak the language and he would be arrogant enough to think that Salazar would think he is the greatest, just like Voldy, himself, does."

Hermione didn't get a chance to answer because there was a loud grating sound and they watched as the mouth of the statue of Salazar opened. Because of their enhanced sight, they could see the giant snake coming out.

Harry tried speaking with it, "We mean you no harm. We are here to tell you to ssstop the attacksss on the mugglebornsss. That isss not your purpossse. You are here to protect the casstle, not attack itsss inhabitancsse."

The basilisk didn't give any indication that it had heard Harry. It just kept coming towards them. Harry took a chance, he used telepathy on the giant serpent. What he found made him want to cry out. The poor thing had been tortured into insanity. It didn't want to do as someone named, "Tom Riddle" told it to do. So the boy used the Cruciatus Curse repeatedly on it, then the Imperious Curse. The snake was completely insane and only obeyed the current heir because they threatened the snake with more torture. He couldn't get a good look at the current "heir", only a flash of red.

He looked over at Hermione with tears in his eyes and shook his head. Indicating that they couldn't save it. Hermione sighed in sadness. They quickly got together and watched as the snake came towards them. It seemed surprised that its stare didn't kill them instantly. It quickly shook off the confusion and swung its tail at them. Harry shoved Hermione down and was just a second slow on ducking himself. He went flying into the far wall, dazed. He shook it off and ran back to Hermione.

"What can we do?"

Hermione thought for a few seconds. Meanwhile, Harry sent bludgeoning curses at it.

She snapped her fingers, "I think I have a plan."

Harry looked at her incredulously, "You 'Think'?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. She quickly sent her plan to him through telepathy. It was quicker than speaking. He nodded his understanding and maneuvered himself into position. He saw the giant snake heading for Hermione and sent a strong bludgeoning curse at it to get its attention off of her. It worked and it headed for him. Hermione quickly started waving her wand around and chanting a modified shadow spell.

Immediately, the snake reared up and shook its head viciously. A bubble had formed around its head. Though, both Harry and Hermione knew that it wasn't a normal bubble. It had no air inside, therefore the basilisk couldn't breath. The only problem was that the snake kept thrashing around and the bubble finally popped.

Hermione yelled, "We need to stop it from thrashing around long enough for it to pass out, then die."

Harry nodded, "You do the bubble, I'll take care of the snake."

She nodded and cast the spell again. This time, just as the bubble formed, Harry waved his wand sharply into the air. At the same time, the giant, 72 ft snake rose into the air. Hermione could almost see the strain on Harry's face.

He joked and said, "What the hell has this thing been eating? Needs to lose a few pounds, maybe around the middle."

Hermione smiled slightly. She still felt bad for killing it, even though it couldn't have been helped. She blamed it on Voldemort. Finally after about ten minutes, the snake died. Harry and Hermione let out a breath of relief.

Harry sighed, "Okay, the hard part is over, now, since we are here, let's look for the journal."

Hermione nodded and they split up. After another ten minutes, they met back in the central chamber.

Harry said, "Nothing from where the snake came from, just some old bones and small sheddings."

Hermione nodded, "The same for me and down those pipes" she pointed to the left, "Were the sheddings any good? I know the one we passed on the way in is. We could sell it or have full sets of armor made."

Harry shook his head, "Nah, they're too small for anything and they look like they have been there for a few decades."

Hermione nodded, "Well, maybe the journal is protected?"

Harry tilted his head to the side, "Maybe..."

He walked to the exact center of the chamber and chanted a goblin revealing spell. They watched as a the pulse of magic radiated out from Harry and hit the walls of the cavern. They had almost given up hope when they saw a slight light come from near the entrance. They walked over and looked closely at the different snake statues lining the entrance walkway.

Harry hissed, "Reveal yoursself!"

Almost immediately the seventh statue came alive and looked Harry directly in his eyes. He felt a foreign presence in his mind but didn't block it out. After a moment, the snake went stiff and returned to a statue before shrinking down to the shape of a lever. Harry and Hermione glanced at each other and shrugged. Harry pulled the lever and the floor to the left of the statue slid away to reveal steps.

They slowly descended the steps and came upon a metal door. It had a snake carved into it. The snake had emeralds for eyes.

It came alive and hissed, "Isss it better to lie, sssteal, murder and blackmail to get your way or ussse your knowledge and intelligencsse, bravery and loyal friendsss to out think and out sssmart your oppossssition, to get it?"

Harry looked at Hermione questioningly, but answered, "Ussse knowledge, intelligencsse, bravery and loyal friendsss."

The snake eyed both of the Ravenclaws and then nodded its head and coiled up on the door. The door clicked open to reveal a small office. It had a few small bookcases, enough for twenty or so books and it had a small cot in the corner. What caught Harry's attention was the desk next to the bookcases. There was a small black book sitting on the desk. It was emerald green with silver lining and it had the Hogwarts House crest for Slytherin on the front.

He walked towards the desk only to be startled when a deep voice asked him a question.

"What are you doing here?"

Harry and Hermione glanced up and were slightly surprised to see a portrait of a thin man in green robes, salt and pepper hair and a small goattee, sitting above the desk.

Harry realized who it was, "You're Salazar Slytherin aren't you?"

The man rolled his eyes, "Well of course I am. Who else would I be?"

Both Hermione and Harry smiled slightly, Harry asked, "Is that your personal journal?"

Salazar nodded, "It is. However, it is different than other journals. I placed my essence and personality within it before I died."

Hermione asked, "What do you mean?"

Salazar replied, "Think of it as if it were this portrait. Only it cannot see or hear you. Now, you didn't answer my question. What are you doing in here?"

Harry said, "We are here because we wanted to find your journal. I have the one in your Gringotts vault but we realized that it wasn't your true journal. Though, we it isn't the original purpose we are here. There have been attacks on the school. Students and pets petrified. We figured out it was a basilisk."

Salazar immediately said, "Meddy would never do that!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "Meddy?"

Salazar cleared his throat, "Yes. Meddy, her real name is Medusa. I went to Greece and heard about an old story and the name seemed to call out to me."

Harry inwardly snickered at the irony, "Well, anyway. Yes it was Medusa. But she wasn't herself. Did someone else come here, about fifty years ago?"

Salazar thought for a moment, "The only other person to ever find this place was that Riddle boy. Nasty piece of work he was. As soon as I realized what sort of person he was, I had my defensive enchantments throw him out and lock him out for good. He couldn't even blast his way inside. The defenses would simply take this office somewhere else within the castle."

Harry said, "Yeah, well he didn't like too much. He tortured Medusa into insanity. Forced her to kill muggleborns in the school. Luckily there was only one death and a whole lot of petrifications."

Salazar was horrified, then his voice turned venomous, "I hope he burns in hell!"

He then turned to them and said, "He must have done something to the Chamber. Ever since he came, Hogwarts has lost touch with me. I can no longer feel her and she can no longer keep me updated. What has been happening?"

So Harry and Hermione sat down on conjured chairs and told Salazar what had happened since 1943, including Harry's history.

"So that is why we wanted to find and hopefully stop the basilisk. We didn't want to kill it."

Salazar nodded, "Well, take my journal. I'll be able to communicate with you through it. Once you have cancelled the enchantments that bastard put on my chamber, I'll be able to see and feel through the castle again. We'll also be able to communicate like you do with Hogwarts. But even better, I'll be able to get out of this god foresaken portrait that I've been stuck in."

Hermione had a thought, "Salazar-"

The founder of Slytherin smiled, "Please, just call me Sal, Salazar is a bit of a mouthful."

Hermione smiled, "Sal, do you know the full name of the Riddle boy?"

Sal's face darkened, "Yes. Tom Marvolo Riddle."

Hermione's face contorted as she thought furiously. She took out her wand and wrote the name in the air, like Harry would do with runes. Harry saw where she was going and helped her. After a few minutes, they had a different phrase in front of them; "I Am Lord Voldemort".

Harry cursed, "I've been trying for years to figure out who he was and I find everything I need to know in under a half hour!"

Hermione started chuckling, which turned into full blown laughter.

Harry gave her a mock glare, she smiled, "I'm not laughing at you. I just realized that Voldemort is a coward. I mean it's in his name and everything!"

Harry didn't get it at first, then smirked as it clicked into place.

"Vol de Mort. Flight from Death. You're right, that's pretty funny."

Harry picked up the journal and looked at it, "Ehh. Sal, is there a way that we could change the look of the journal? I mean, nothing against it, I think it looks great, but if someone were to see this, they would immediately think 'Salazar Slytherin's personal journal!'."

Sal smiled, "Yes, you can put a glamor on it. Tie the magic to my House Crest, it will power it from the ambient magic around it."

Harry nodded. He did so, then took the other books on the bookcases and shrunk them down to put them in his pockets. After that, they made their way back up to to main Chamber. Harry had a thought and walked away from Hermione.

He said, "Since we haven't figured out who the heir is this time, we need some insurance. He started chanting in ancient Native American. As he did, an outline of what looked like a snake started to appear in front of him. He continued the chant for a few minutes, then stopped. When he was done, he was staring at a perfect replica of Medusa. Harry charmed it so that only someone that has entered the chamber could see it. He also put a detection charm on it and made it so that he could speak through it. After he was done, he looked at the remains of Medusa sadly. He knew that it was his and Hermione's because they killed it and that they needed to get rid of it so the heir didn't realize anything was wrong, but he still felt bad. From what Sal had said, she had been really sweet and had a great sense of humor.

He sighed, "Hermione, do you want to come with me to Ragnok's office?"

Hermione realized what he was talking about and nodded. They sent a note with Gwen and waited for a reply. They got one five minutes later. Then, they stepped into a shadow and out of one in Ragnok's office.

Ragnok asked, "To what do I owe this unexpected visit so late at night?"

Harry winced, "We apologize War Chief Ragnok. But what we need done can't wait until morning and it will bring much gold to all of us."

Ragnok was intrigued, Hermione continued, "There are attacks going on at Hogwarts. We took care of what was performing the attacks but not the person behind them. We need to get rid of the beast's carcass before the enemy realizes that there is something wrong. Harry has already woven an illusion to fool the enemy."

Ragnok nodded, "Ah yes, I know very well about Mr. Daniels' illusions. They can be so real that a person's mind can perceive false injuries as real ones. The first time a group of my warriors faced one, the illusion actually threw them back and their internal magic reacted accordingly. The illusion made it seem like they had broken bones and their magic broke those bones. Thought, I believe you put a lot of power into that illusion, didn't you."

Hermione gaped at Harry, who blushed.

Ragnok clapped his hands, "Now, what is it you need of me?"

Harry exhaled, "We need however many goblins it will take to get a basilisk, around 70 ft long, taken care of within two hours."

Ragnok nearly fell off his chair, "Where did you find such a beast?"

Harry sighed, "It was Salazar Slytherin's personal basilisk. It was tortured into insanity by Voldemort when he was at Hogwarts and it was prowling the school looking for 1st gen. magicals to kill. Luckily, there have just been petrifications so far. We killed it about two hours ago. We need it out of the chamber by morning and you need one of us to get you in and out of the chamber. We are tired hence the two hour deadline. We are willing to pay extra to get it done."

Ragnok nodded and slammed a fist on a rune on his desk. At once a smaller goblin came in and Ragnok told him to get 20 goblins ready and in the departure area in ten minutes. The other goblin nodded and ran off. Ten minutes later, Harry and Hermione were Shadow Walking ten Goblins each, to the chamber. Ragnok flashed in with Gwen to see the beast. The goblins gaped at the size of the basilisk.

Ragnok said, "I thought you were joking about the size. Harry, no one has ever seen a basilisk this size! The skin alone would make enough full suits of armor for nearly 20 people. Cloaks included."

Hermione asked, "How can it make that much? I mean there is only about 70 ft of skin there, at least in length."

Ragnok nodded, "Yes, and in width there is more, but the way Goblins cure the hide causes the skin to stretch out considerably more."

Harry nodded, "Just set the skin to the side- WAIT!"

He ran forward and tackled a goblin to the floor and Hermione yelled, "SHUT YOUR EYES!"

Immediately every goblin complied. Harry quickly closed the eyes that the goblin was trying to open.

Once they were closed, he said, "Okay, it's all clear. Sorry, but it's eyes are still intact. And their magic doesn't dissipate that quickly even after death."

The goblin he had tackled to the floor saluted him in thanks.

Ragnok, slightly awed asked, "How then were you able to kill it?"

Hermione responded, "We have special contacts that a friend made us. The protect us from magic that works through the eye."

One taller goblin said, "I see no markings of battle on it. How did you kill it?"

Harry answered, "I lifted it up with magic and Hermione conjured a bubble around its head that didn't have any oxygen in it. We suffocated it."

The goblins looked between Harry and the giant snake and were impressed that he could lift the beast off the ground at all. All of them working together could do it easily but, just one human wizard? And one that wasn't even fully done growing? They quickly got to work and Harry and Hermione took a small nap. The fight had taken a lot of magic out of them and the adrenaline rush was gone.

Once they were done, Ragnok woke them and they Shadow Walked the goblins back to the bank. They followed Ragnok into his office.

The Goblin leader said, "I can guess that the beast will bring over G1,000,000. No one has ever found a basilisk that size. The biggest recorded was only 28 ft long. The fact that the eyes are intact will alone fetch G100,000."

Harry asked, "Can any other species eat the meat?"

Ragnok saw where he was going and shook his head, "No, only Goblins can handle the toxicity of the meat. It is a rare delicacy in our culture. For the meat alone, the Goblin Nation would be willing to buy it for G600,000." at their surprised faces he clarified, "When I meant that it was a delicacy, I meant it. A 3 ounce steak of Basilisk meat would cost around G200. The last basilisk that was killed was well over a century ago."

He continued, "Next to the eyes and meat, the next most valuable thing would be the skin, which you have already said you will keep. Then comes the venom and venom sacks, blood, then the teeth, and skull. Then there's that extra skin that you led us to outside the main chamber, though it isn't as fresh as the others, it is still in good condition. All together, you are looking at around G1,450,000. Give or take a few G1,000 or so."

Harry swayed a bit. That was a lot of money. Split between Hermione and himself, that was around G720,000 for each of them. They nodded and had the money transferred to their main vaults. Ragnok informed them that they would have the first two suits of armor and cloaks for them by the end of the week. He also told them that because of the age, the new suits would be better than their current ones. After that, Harry and Hermione Shadow Walked to the Ravenclaw dormitory. They were asleep before they hit their beds.

The following morning, Harry got up and took a shower. He came down and was met by Hermione and Luna. They let her know that the Basilisk was taken care of and then proceeded with their day, as if nothing was different. The only difference in their schedules was that they spent an inordinate amount of extra time in the library. They had decided to research more of what happened in the early '40s. They searched through newspapers and old school records along with any history books that discussed that time period.

Most of the student population had started to believe he, Hermione and Luna about Lockhart, especially the fifth and seventh years. They had OWLs and NEWTs coming up and the ponce wasn't teaching them anything. They noticed the books the three Ravenclaws had and many people started requesting their own copies to study from. Harry was happy to provide the books and only asked for their copies of Lockhart's books. Some refused to give them up so he just charged them the asking price of the book they were asking for.

One day, in the Great Hall, a Ravenclaw seventh year asked for the books and handed her copy of Lockhart's book.

She asked, "Harry, why are you asking for Lockhart's books? I mean, what are you going to do with them?"

Harry smirked and glanced at Hermione, "Well, Hermione and I are going to France again this summer. I have a private beach that I rent from a friend and we are going to have a bonfire towards the end of our stay. And wood always burns better with scraps of paper mixed in."

As he finished Lockhart ran out of the Great Hall, both embarrassed and crying slightly. More than a few students started chuckling at his statement.

Dumbledore sighed, "Mr. Daniels, please refrain from upsetting the staff."

Harry smirked, "What? He shouldn't care what happens to the books. At the end of the day, he'll still be able to buy a small country with the amount of his books that people were forced to buy this year for Hogwarts. I mean, hell, my books are sitting at the bottom of my trunk with cobwebs on them. I haven't touched them since October. That was a waste of money if ever I've seen one."

Dumbledore sighed. He had already tried to stop the distribution of new texts that Harry was facilitating. However, Harry had effectively told him that there wasn't a rule against it and it was self studying, which the Hogwarts' charter clearly states is allowed.

After the first week of February, they finally found the information that they wanted. They found that it was Hagrid that was blamed for opening the Chamber the previous time. They both found that utterly ridiculous. Sure the guy had an unhealthy obsession with dangerous animals, but really. That people could believe that he was in any way related to Slytherin was laughable.

Another thing that they noticed was the odd behavior from Ginny. The few times that they had mentioned the first part of the school year and her depression, she acted as if she had no idea what they were talking about. After about a week of putting up with her odd behavior, they agreed that something was wrong and that someone may have messed with her mind. One day, while Hermione distracted her, Harry used Legilimency and found that they were right.

After she had left, he turned to Hermione, "She has a memory block on her. It's like it's completely walled off."

Hermione sighed, "Did you get a chance to look at it?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, the blocks around it were good, but Ms. Cerina is better and she taught me."

_Flashback_

Harry dove into the red head's mind. He stayed clear of anything person and only looked for anything that seemed odd or out of the ordinary. All of a sudden, he found a walled off part of her mind. He could tell, just by looking at it that Ginny had no idea that it was there. He studied it for a few moments, then started testing its strength. Finally, he found a tiny flaw in the stone protection. He used slight nudges to fit inside of it and found himself immersed in memories.

He watched as Ginny wrote in a little black book and was amazed when it wrote back. When he saw the name on the book he blanched. It was Riddle's personal diary from his school days! The memories flitted by. He watched as she cried and confessed her feelings of loneliness to the diary. He knew from past lessons that a person's magic took in everything and it could be seen in a memory. So he used his mage sight to watch as the diary slowing took Ginny's magic and life force into itself.

He watched as she wrote in the diary and then all of a sudden, her face went blank. She seemed to be in a trance and he saw that her eyes had a slight red tinge to them. He knew immediately that she was being possessed. He didn't know what kind of magic could do it but he knew it had something to do with that diary. He watched as each time she was possessed, she staged the attacks.

After a while, he noticed a small strain of thought buried within Ginny's own memories. He dove into it and found that he was blind, but could feel through magic. He felt and saw flashes of thought. He realized that it was the diary. It was conscious and it had left remnants of thought within the memories. He watched as the diary possessed Ginny. He felt the diary get stronger every time Ginny wrote in the diary. He even saw the memory that the diary had apparently shown Chris when he had found it.

Finally, he came across the last memory of the diary that was in Ginny's own memories. He saw and felt that she was writing less and less. That she was finding more and more time to spend with her friends, than to write in the diary. Finally he watched as the diary possessed Ginny, locked the memories away so as to not leave evidence, cast a spell to mask its presence from the castle wards and force her to leave the diary somewhere in the castle that someone could find it. He immediately pulled out of Ginny's mind and thought about what he had found.

_End Flashback_

"I don't know what it was, but that diary is not like Sal's. It has more substance. No simple enchanted item can possess someone. It has to be the magic that we have been feeling. But because of the spell that it had Ginny cast, Hogwarts won't be able to find it again."

Hermione said, "Well, we know that Dumbles knows about it. We should just put monitoring charms on Chris and his buddies and wait until the old man springs his test. That and put wards on the entrance to the Chamber."

Harry nodded, "Though, with Tom putting a spell up to fool the school wards, he will most likely detect the wards to the entrance and that would let him know someone is on to him. Now, a more important question. Should we tell Ginny what happened to her?"

Hermione sighed, "Well, darn. I guess we shouldn't put wards on the entrance. As for Ginny, I don't know. We need to, I know that, but it will be hard on her. Maybe we should teach her Occlumency first so that she can lock the memories away on her own. That way, if the memories surface later on in her life, she won't be taken by surprise."

Harry nodded. With that, they continued training and working on their own special projects. They started training Ginny in Occlumency shortly after they found the hidden memories. They told Luna, who was concerned for her friend, but trusted Harry and Hermione. She started helping Ginny with the Occlumency exercises. Harry and Hermione started planning for the worst, if they couldn't find the person that the diary had found to do its bidding. They could still feel the sickly magic, but it was like it was covered up. It was faint but still very much there.

Halfway through April, Harry and Hermione had decided on the best course of action in dealing with Hagrid. They liked the gentle half-giant. They knew that it was only a matter of time before the idiocy of the Ministry would go after him as a scapegoat.

They made their way down to his hut one Saturday afternoon and asked to visit him.

Once inside they made small talk for a few minutes. Hagrid offered his rock-cakes and gave them a ridiculously large cup of tea as they chatted and caught up. Hagrid had asked after Gwen, they had formed a small friendship and she often visited him in his hut or on the grounds.

Harry started, "Hagrid, can we ask you a question and can you be completely honest with us?"

Hagrid looked puzzled, "O' course. Ask away."

Harry smiled, "We know that the Chamber of Secrets was opened in 1943 and we know that, that was year that you were expelled. We know that you were framed, but what we don't know is what really happened. Could you tell us?"

Hagrid paled slightly at the start of Harry's statement, then sighed, "I nev'r hurt anyone. Arragog nev'r hurt anyone."

Harry asked, "Who or what is Aragog?"

Hagrid muttered something, "Sorry Hagrid, didn't quite hear that."

Hagrid sighed, "I said, Aragog is an Acromantula. But 'e nev'r hurt no one! He nev'r left his room."

Harry sighed, "Ok. I believe you. But next time, think about this, you are a lot stronger than everyone else. You can't get hurt as easily as everyone else in Hogwarts. So next time you want to keep an extremely dangerous creature, keep it somewhere safe, not just for the creature, but for others as well. And at least tell me or someone that can help you if something were to happen."

Hagrid sighed but nodded his agreement.

Harry said, "Now, we didn't just come down here to visit, then dredge up old history. I have an offer to make you. We both know that the Ministry will try to use someone as a scapegoat and with your history, you'll be the most likely candidate. I'm offering you protection under my house."

Hagrid replied, "But profes'r Dumbledore will protect me."

Harry said, "He may, but at the same time, the Ministry may try to go over his head and say that he can't have a say in the matter because of his personal relationship with you. I'm not saying that you have to do anything for me. Just that you will be protected by the Ancient and Noble House of Gryffindor. I would use Daniels but Gryffindor has more political clout and respect. It would just be extra protection. I would hate to see you end up in a holding cell or worse, Azkaban."

Hagrid paled at the thought of being put in Britain's wizarding prison. He quickly agreed. Harry gave him a pendent and told Hagrid that if he needed him, to just hold the pendent and think of him. With that, they went back up to the castle look for Ginny and Luna. Harry took out his map and activated it. Almost immediately, he noticed a name jump out at him. It was a sickly green color, "Tom Riddle". He pulled Hermione to a secluded corner and showed it to her. They then remembered that they had seen the name with Ginny more than one time in the past. They knew they couldn't get to the spot in time. The name was surrounded by a multitude of other names. They would never be able to figure out who was possessed.

Harry and Hermione were surprised when there was another attack the first week of May. A fourth year Hufflepuff, Cedric and a fifth year Ravenclaw, Penelope Clearwater. It happened before a Quidditch match and the game was cancelled. The attack scared everyone, Cedric was a pureblood and Penelope was a halfblood. The night after the attack, Harry and Hermione sneaked into the Hospital Wing to try and figure out what happened.

Harry knew that the heir was getting irritated with the "Basilisk" because it had not attacked another person. He walked up to Cedric's bed and ran some diagnostic charms to figure out what happened. The results slightly surprised him. He went over to Hermione and Penelope and got the same results. It was parselmagic that petrified them. Harry recognized it as a "net" spell that affected an entire area. He wondered why Riddle didn't just kill them.

Hermione answered, "Probably because he realized that killing would get the attention of Aurors. That, and petrified victims spread more terror."

Harry nodded. He studied the spellwork and found that the spell was slightly modified so that the only way to undo the petrification would be the mandrake potion that was being brewed.

His prediction that the Ministry would choose Hagrid as a scapegoat proved true a few days after the fourth attack. The charms he had put on Chris and Ron let him know that they were out of the castle so he and Hermione shadow walked to them to see what they were doing. They found them in Hagrid's hut, talking with him about the time when he was framed. He and Hermione stayed in the shadows and listened. They used telepathy to find out that Longbottom was covering for them in the Gryffindor common room.

They hadn't been there but five minutes before there was a knock at the door and he watched as Chris and Ron hid under the invisibility cloak. The two hidden students watched as Dumbledore, Auror Potter and the Minister of Magic walked in. Harry rolled his eyes when he heard Ron start whispering to Chris. He sent a silencing spell at them so they weren't heard. He may not like them, but he didn't want to see them in trouble for spying on the Minister.

They watched, disgusted, as Dumbledore didn't even put up a fight to save Hagrid from Azkaban. He noticed Hagrid grip his pendent, then felt the charms alerting him to Hagrid's call for help. He shadow walked back to his room, then called Gwen to him. He flashed away after being in the room for under a minute. Hermione had stayed in the shadows to watch the meeting and send it to the _Daily Prophet_.

He appeared right inside Hagrid's hut, next to him, startling everyone in the hut.

Dumbledore was the first to recover, "Mr. Daniels, it is well past curfew. I will have to take -"

Harry interrupted, "This deals with family business. So can it."

Ignoring the looks he was getting and turned to Hagrid, "So what's the problem Hagrid?"

The giant explained that the Minister was there to take him away.

He turned back to the Minister and said, "Where is your evidence that Hagrid has done anything unlawful?"

Minister blustered and said, "His record is against him."

Harry replied, "Be that as it may, where is your evidence for the so-called crime now? I'll ignore that there was no actual evidence against him before, only the word of a boy that seemed to have the staff eating out of his hands."

Seeing Dumbledore's face he said, "Yes, headmaster. I did my research. I know that the boy was very gifted and was well liked but that doesn't mean that his word should have been taken as law."

The Minister tried again, but Harry simply said, "As a protectorate of House Gryffindor, Rubeus Hagrid cannot be taken into custody without formal charges and evidence proving suspicion. His previous record does not count because there was no evidence for that arrest either."

Fudge said, "I could have you arrested for interfering with an official investigation!"

Harry returned that with, "And I could have you brought up on charges of abuse of power, threatening the Head of multiple Ancient and Noble Houses for protecting someone under my protection. Not to mention the goodies that I can find out with enough gold to the right people. Now, are we going to have a problem here, Minister?"

Fudge paled and shook his head. Dumbledore looked disappointedly at Harry. Presumably to say that he was disappointed in Harry for threatening the Minister and blackmail. Harry studiously ignored him and James Potter. Finally, Fudge turned and walked out the door.

Dumbledore said, "That was a good thing you did Harry."

Harry shrugged, "It's what I do for those I call friends. Besides, it didn't look like you were going to do anything, even though, you could have easily overruled Fudge acting in your capacity as Chief Warlock."

Hagrid had a look of sadness and betrayal on his face as he looked at Dumbledore.

The aged Headmaster replied, "I could do nothing. The minister went above me and got authorization without consulting me."

Harry shrugged, "Whatever. What matters is that an innocent man isn't going to Azkaban."

As he finished, there was another rap on the door. Lucius Malfoy came striding in. Hagrid growled at him to get out of his house. Malfoy simply insulted him and proceeded to hand Dumbledore his termination as Headmaster. He proceeded to insult Hagrid again, and Harry stepped out from behind him.

"Now, Lucy, it's not nice to call other people names. It's also not wise, especially if they are protectorates of someone you have already irritated. A protectorate of House Gryffindor has asked you, nicely, to leave his house. If I have to make the request a second time, I won't be as nice."

Lucius blanched, "I am just here to give Dumbledore his termination papers, then I will be leaving."

Harry replied, "And if it turns out that you threatened the other governors, I will be angry."

Lucius paled further, but said nothing. Dumbledore looked at Harry, seemingly hoping that Harry would do something, if he could.

Harry, seeing the look, shrugged and said, "Tough luck Dumbledore. I'll be seeing you."

Dumbledore sighed and said a little speech, Harry guessed for, Chris and Ron. Harry then sensed Dumbledore shoot a spell at Chris. He assumed that it was a monitoring charm, he would check later. After he left, Lucius didn't stay around, he quickly left.

Harry turned to Hagrid, "I think it would be wise if you left for a while. I wouldn't put it past the Minister to try something to get you taken away. I have a place I think you'll like."

Hagrid nodded and got a few things together.

When he asked if Fang could come along, Harry replied, "No, where I'm sending you wouldn't be healthy for a dog. Don't worry, I'll take care of him while you're away."

Hagrid nodded and finished gathering his things, "W'ere are yeh sending me ter?"

Harry smiled, "I happen to know that you have a friend in Romania that would be happy to see you. Just ask for Charlie Weasley and say that a friend of Alex sent you. You can explain what's going on and why you're there. I'm friends with the Romanian ambassador so they will keep you safe if Fudge tries something. Though, the only people who know where you're going are in this room and I won't say anything and you're the one going so I think you're safe."

Hagrid nodded and thanked Harry. Then said some nonsense about spiders, probably to Chris and Ron as a clue. To Harry, it sounded as if he had told them to go into the forest to the Acromantula Colony. Harry internally sighed, he would definitely keep an eye on the idiotic Gryffindors.

Gwen flashed Hagrid away and Harry quickly charmed Fang's water bowl and food bowl to magically refill once a day. He also transfigured a wall into a doggie door and charmed Fang's collar to always bring the dog back to the hut at night. He then left to go back to the castle.

The next morning everyone knew that Dumbledore had been sacked. They also knew that Harry had been there and saved Hagrid but not Dumbledore. Some were of mixed views of this. Some believed that it was kind of Harry to protect Hagrid, but at the same time, they were hesitant about it because obviously there was a reason the Minister wanted to arrest Hagrid. Others believed that he didn't protect Dumbledore out of spite. Either way, Harry didn't really listen to the people talk about him behind his back.

The whole story was in the _Daily Prophet_. It depicted Harry as the righteous Head of House, defending one of his protectorates against a corrupt Minister. The article asked the public multiple questions, including, "Why was the Minister going straight to arrest Hagrid without investigating at all?" It also was printed with the view of the Minister actually believed that Hagrid was the true Heir of Salazar Slytherin. Towards the end of the article, it explained away Harry's inability to help Dumbledore because he simply did not have power over the Hogwarts Board of Governors.

After reading the paper, most people believed that Harry simply couldn't help Dumbledore. Which was a complete lie. Because he was the heir of multiple founders, he did have sway over the Board, but he didn't help for two simple reasons. One; he didn't want to reveal his other status, it would just cause more problems. And two; he didn't like the old man and his life would be easier without having him around.

Ever since learning that Riddle had used parselmagic to petrify the students, he had delved deeper into Riddle's past. He had always wanted to find out as much about Voldemort as he could, but never knew where to start. He never had the wannabe Lord's real name. He started researching his past in both the magical world and the mundane world, on the off chance he had crossed into for any length of time.

What he found in the Ministry's files was shocking. Riddle was a halfblood! The more Harry researched, the more he was shocked. After calling in multiple favors, both as Harry Daniels and Alex Shadow, he had a more than clear picture of Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr.'s past. He found that his mother died in childbirth and named him after his father and grandfather. He learned that his uncle was sent to prison for killing the Riddle family in Tom's sixth year. Though he suspected that Tom had done it and framed his uncle. He learned that after leaving for a few months, Tom Riddle Sr. came back to his family, without his wife, Merope Gaunt. Harry had found a picture of Merope and suspected love potions.

Once he put everything together, he found that the whole story was completely ridiculous. The only thing that he didn't know, was how Tom had survived that night when he sent Voldy's curse back at him. It also made him realize that the whole thing, the whole last war was started by a coward with abandonment issues that were exasperated by the bigotry and narrow mindedness of the British Magical Society.

After he figured all of this out, he spent the rest of the day deep in the Forbidden Forest, working off his anger. By the time he was done, there was an area, the size of two acres, where there were no trees whatsoever. Afterwards he told Hermione what he had found and had to calm her down. They decided to transform into their Shadow Cat forms and take their anger out that way. They ran for miles. Their roars were heard all the way back at Hogwarts and gave the students another reason to avoid the forest.

Two weeks after Hagrid left for Romania, the charms on Chris and Ron went off.

He and Hermione sighed, "Why can't they choose to break the rules before nightfall? I mean really. This is ridiculous."

Hermione agreed. They shadow walked to Chris and Ron and they found Neville with them. Harry had never put a charm on him because he was always with Chris and Ron. The two Ravenclaws quickly realized that the three Gryffindors were making their way to the Forbidden Forest. After listening to their conversation, they realized that they were following Hagrid's advice and "following the spiders". They sighed and just attached themselves to their shadows.

After a while, they noticed that the Gryffindors had made it to the Acromantula colony. They watched in morbid fascination as the spiders picked them up and handed them to the next spider in the line, in the distance, Harry saw something with huge lights on it's head in the distance. Finally they arrived in front of the biggest freaking spider Harry had ever seen. It identified itself as Aragog. Harry and Hermione watched as the Gryffindors questioned the giant arachnid. It was quickly apparent why he wasn't in the house of wisdom when Chris demanded that Aragog tell him what the beast is. He found out very quickly that that wasn't a good idea when Aragog voiced the order for his children to eat the three Gryffindors.

Chris, Ron and Neville made it out of the clearing, where Aragog was, simply by luck and decent aim with spells. When they were nearly surrounded, Harry and Hermione decided they needed to help. They quickly came out of the shadows near a clump of trees not far from the trapped lions. They started casting a flurry of spells. They were casting so fast that it seemed like there was a constant stream of magic leaving their wands. Eventually, they carved a path to the trapped and terrified Gryffindors.

Harry quickly shouted for the three of them to follow he and Hermione. Hermione took the lead while Harry took the rear. After a rushed five minutes, the five students came stumbling out of forest.

Ron was shaking but managed to get out, "Th-Thank y-you."

Neville nodded while Chris just stared at Harry hard.

"What were you doing out there? Following us?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "No, we were out for a moonlit stroll in the woods. Of course we were following you, ass. We saw you from our tower. We figured that it couldn't be good being night and you three going into the forest."

Chris angrily said, "Well, next time mind your own business! We were fine."

Harry sneered, "Fine. Next time, I'll leave you to be eaten by giant carnivorous spiders. You know how they eat their food right? They wrap you up in their web and inject you with a poison that slowly eats away at you from the inside out. After a few days, they will take the webbing off and suck out the liquefied remains of your internal organs. Next time we will mind our own business and leave you to it."

Chris looked contrite, both Ron and Neville elbowed him in the ribs. He grudgingly gave a terse "thank you". They they all went their separate ways. The three Gryffindors, to their common room and the two Ravenclaws, to theirs. Using telepathy, Harry could hear Chris' thoughts and hopes that they the two Ravens would get caught and get detentions.

He shook his head, _Why the hell do I even bother?_

As if reading his thoughts, Hermione said, "Because you're a better person than he is. That is why you did that and will continue to help him, or at least, protect him from his own stupidity."

Harry smiled, then pulled her into a hug. He buried his face in her slightly curly hair. He liked her hair when it was a "bushy mess" as she called it, but he quickly got used to her hair this way too.

"What did I do to get a friend like you? I mean, before I came back, I only had a few friends and all of them were years older than me. I'm not back in Britain for more than a month and I met you, my best friend and someone that I can easily see becoming more."

Hermione blushed and smiled brightly at him.

She kissed him lightly on the lips and said, "You're just lucky that way. And I'm lucky you chose to help us out on the Platform."

Harry smiled, "Nah, I would have found you even if we hadn't met then."

She smiled at him and they put their foreheads together and sunk into the shadows, back to their common room.

The next day, the news that exams were only a week away. It brought a lot of complaints from most of the student body. Many complained that they shouldn't have to take their exams because of the attacks. They were quickly disabused of that idea when McGonagall, acting Headmistress, informed the school that Dumbledore's instructions were to keep everything running as usual.

Harry and Hermione once again started their study group to help their classmates. Luna and Ginny joined the group as well. Harry and Hermione helped them with any concepts that they couldn't understand when they weren't studying themselves. The two second year Ravenclaws didn't study much. During the day, they spent their time in the library, at the table that they claimed for the group. At night, Harry and Hermione would try and come up with a plan.

Harry had already went back down to the Chamber and put up shadow wards on the entrance. He put an illusion over the magic so no one would be able to see the spells. He felt like he had every base covered, but they both felt that the end of the conflict was coming and they needed to have a plan. Harry knew that he would have to reveal some of his secrets, not the more important ones, but some. Even if they found the new person Riddle was possessing, they wouldn't be able to stop what was going on without raising suspicion. There would be too many questions that people would be asking.

They had Hogwarts keeping an eye on the students and Sal keeping an eye on things through the paintings. Ever since he was released from the Chamber, he had been visiting paintings all day, every day. He claimed that he was just trying to get caught up on what was going on, but Harry secretly thought that he missed the company.

**A/N - I had this done faster than I thought I would. So here you go. I may take a bit longer on the next chapter. I have a big exam in Psych next week and another big exam in my Bio class the following week. I'll try to keep you updated. If it's going to take longer, I'll throw a note up on my profile.**

**A/N 2 - Some people have asked why Harry and the girls don't just leave Hogwarts. The reason is that there is a stipulation to have control over the founders vaults and be the Head of the Houses****; they need to have gone to Hogwarts. I thought I had said that earlier in the Book 1 but may have forgotten to add it. Another question is if Luna will join Harry and Hermione in the Shadows; I haven't put too much thought into it. I know that she wil either, eventually join them, or simply assist them like the Mages do. But that wont be for a while. Another concern is that she will be "special" like Harry and Hermione and understand magic differently. The answer is no. She has her own unique view of it, but she will not have their grasp of it. She may learn it, later on, but for the time being, Harry and Hermione will be the only two who are unique in that regard.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N - I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only play in the universe. Any ideas that other authors that recognize some of their ideas, I apologize, I have read so many stories that I can't remember where I get some of them. Send me a PM and I will try to give you the credit that you deserve. I appreciate constructive criticism but will ignore any flames you send me. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

Chapter 9

Before anyone in the castle knew, the week had ended and they were just three days away from exams. At breakfast, McGonagall announced that the mandrakes were ready to be cut and the Mandrake Draught would be ready that night. When she announced that, the Great Hall was rocked with cheers.

The rest of the day went on with the entire castle seeming much happier. After lunch, hey Harry and Hermione spent their time outside, sitting by the lake, reading their manybooks. Harry was reading more on Runes and Hermione was reading on useful charms in dueling. Luna and Ginny were with them, they were studying for their Transfiguration exams. They went about the rest of their day as they normally would. Towards the evening they were walking around the castle, talking with each other about their summer plans when Harry felt the wards on the chamber alert him. Just he felt the wards go off, they heard McGonagall over the loudspeaker.

"All students, report to your House dormitories immediately. Teachers are to report to the Staff room. Thank you."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and made sure they were alone, then walked into a shadow. They emerged in the staff room. They watched, hidden from the inhabitants of the room and listened to the conversation.

McGonagall said, "The worst has happened. The heir has taken students into the Chamber itself."

The other teachers gasped and Flitwick asked, "Who have they taken Minerva?"

The acting Headmistress sighed, "Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood and Zacharias Smith."

The professors continued talking, but Harry and Hermione heard nothing that they said. The heir had taken Luna. He was angry that they had taken Ginny as well, but Luna was like his sister. He was worried that Zacharias Smith had been taken too, but the guy was a pompous prick that could annoy anyone he came in contact with. While thinking of what they could do, the two Ravenclaws noticed Chris, Neville and Ron hiding elsewhere in the room, listening to the conversation.

Using telepathy, they found that the three Gryffindors had figured out where the entrance was and were going to tell the staff members what they had found, but decided to be idiotic Gryffindors and do it themselves. Harry and Hermione followed them as they went and got Lockhart to go with them. The two Ravenclaws were amazed at their sheer stupidity. Lockhart would be more a nuisance, than a help. When the small party, got to Myrtle's bathroom, they questioned her, the same as Harry and Hermione had. Though, Chris was much more rude to her than they had been.

Once they got down to the outer chamber, Harry had Hermione go back and tell the professors what was happening.

She agreed and kissed him, "Be careful."

Harry smirked, "Always am."

Hermione smirked and rolled her eyes. She shadow traveled back to the corridor outside the bathroom and had a thought. She quickly went to Gringotts and asked Ragnok for a favor. He granted it and she was back in Hogwarts in less than five minutes. She made her way to the staffroom. When she got there, she walked into, what appeared to be a big meeting.

Flitwick said, "Ms. Granger, what are you doing here? All students are to be in the house Dormitories!"

Hermione said, "I'm sorry professor. But Harry and I saw Chris Potter, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley and Lockhart walking into the girls' lavatory on the second floor. We followed them to see what was going on and saw them open an entrance to what we think is the Chamber of Secrets. There was a big hole in the ground and they jumped down. Harry went to follow them, since Lockhart didn't have a wand, Weasley's wand is broken and more of a danger than without one. He figured that if they got into trouble he could help. I came here to tell you."

At the blank looks she was getting, she tapped her foot impatiently, "Umm. Are you going to help them or not?"

That snapped them out of it, McGonagall said sternly, "You should have come to us immediately!"

Hermione sighed, "Yes, that is why I am here. Harry followed them because he can take care of himself. We already figured out what the monster is anyway."

Lily asked, "And what is it?"

Hermione simply said, "A Basilisk." at their disbelieving looks she continued, "Think about it. Salazar was famous for being a parselmouth, so he could control snakes. A basilisk is the only creature that I can think of that can live for a thousand years. The reason there have been no deaths yet is strictly because of luck. Filch's cat saw the reflection in the water on the floor, Creevey saw it through his camera, Hopkins saw it through Nick, Nick was already dead so he can die twice. We're not sure about the last attack but they were in a corridor with plenty of windows, very easy to catch the reflection of something in them."

Snape sneered, "And how, pray tell, has a giant snake been getting around a castle full of people, undetected?"

Hermione sneered right back at him, "Well, lets see. The entrance is in a bathroom. The plumbing of British magical society hasn't changed in the last thousand years, so the pipes are huge. Easily big enough to fit a giant snake in them. It's actually kind of sad that two second years figured this out before the staff did. Especially because Dumbledore was here the last the Chamber was opened and has had a fifty year head start on us."

The staff ignored the veiled insult, Snape just sneered at her. He knew that Harry had taught her quite a bit and wasn't willing to risk more embarrassment by having her beat him like Daniels did. The staff; Professors Flitwick, Snape, McGonagall, Sprout and Potter, along with Madam Pomfrey, aurors Potter, Black, Longbottom and Longbottom, Mrs and Mrs. Weasley, Lovegood, Smith and Remus Lupin all quickly headed for the bathroom. Hermione followed quickly behind them all. When they got there, the sinks were closed, Snape sneered and asked where the entrance was.

Hermione simply pulled out a small crystal and Flitwick gasped, "That is a Goblin Memory crystal! How did you get that? No one but goblins and friends of the Goblin Nation can get their hands on them."

Hermione shrugged, "Ragnok gave it to me for Christmas. There is a charm on it so that only I or Harry can use it. We recorded Harry using parseltongue with it."

She activated the crystal and everyone took an involuntary step back at hearing the hissing language. They were even more amazed when the sinks moved aside.

McGonagall said, "Thank you Miss Granger, we will take it from here."

Hermione retorted, "I don't think so professor. I am the only person Harry trusts implicitly. He likes you, professors Flitwick and Sprout, but he doesn't trust anyone but me. So I will be going down."

Hermione saw Snape start to say something and flicked her wand and his mouth was removed.

"I didn't ask you sir. We don't need to hear your snide remarks or about your petty vendetta against Harry or anyone remotely related to the Marauders."

The staff and parents were amazed at her cheek. Sirius, James and Remus smirked at her, to which she just rolled her eyes.

Ignoring the looks she was getting, she simply said, "See you when you get down."

With that, she jumped backwards, down the pipe. She slowed her descent "**Aresto Momentum!**" When she got down there, she was only there for a few seconds before the rest of them came shooting out of the tunnel. All except McGonagall, who used a spell to slow her speed.

Hermione rolled her eyes as they slowly got up, moaning about hitting the floor so hard.

"Did none of you think to use **Aresto Momentum** or some other spell to slow yourselves down?"

She was answered with sheepish looks and muttering. They made their way into the outer chamber where they were met with the sight of Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, who were clearing out some rocks and Gilderoy Lockhart, sitting in the corner.

The three didn't realize that the rest of them were there until McGonagall cleared her throat and gave them a withering look.

Lockhart was heard whispering to Ron, "Ooooh, I wouldn't want her mad at me. She looks mean." When Minerva cleared her throat again, he sing songed, "Someone's in trouble!"

Hermione was fed up with the prat and simply walked up to him and knocked him out with her knee. When the others gave her a look, she responded with a shrug that said, "What? If you had thought of it first, you would have done it!".

McGonagall asked, "What are you doing down here?"

Ron and Neville stuttered over their story. Hermione understood enough of it to get a general idea; They had figured out the entrance when they found a book in the common room. They knew about Moaning Myrtle because they had heard girls talk about her. They went to the staffroom and heard about Ginny being taken and decided they needed to do something. They went to get Lockhart, then entered the bathroom. Once down the pipe, there was a struggle with Ron's wand, which promptly blew up when Lockhart tried to memory charm them. The explosion caused the roof to collapse and they heard and saw Harry run through the opening and push Chris out of the way. When they found out everyone was alright, Chris decided to continue on and they heard Harry trying to "Chicken out" by saying they should wait for help. In the end, Chris went on and Harry followed.

Hermione rolled her eyes and asked the staff, "Now are you glad that Harry chose to follow them? I'm fairly sure that Chris would have been flattened by the rocks if Harry hadn't pushed him out of the way."

A few of the adults looked to Ron and Neville for their opinion. They denied it and said Harry just got in the way, but their expressions and tone of voice said differently.

Hermione was furious but simply said, "Good Lord, I don't know why we put up with this crap. If it weren't for Harry, I would simply leave this ridiculous castle and go to France or America. Salem Academy is so much better and I doubt I would be forced to help pompous pricks save themselves from their own stupidity."

At the outcry of insults from the two Gryffindors and a few adults, Hermione just lifted an eyebrow, "So you would rather we not help them? Fine. Next time you decide to go out into the forest at night, into the Acromantula colony, we won't save you. Next time there is a rock fall, I'll make sure Harry leaves you and continues on. He didn't come down here for the three of you. Luna is like his sister and she is in the chamber. Ginny is a very good friend and she is in the chamber, Zacharias is a prat, but Harry couldn't leave him alone either. He went down here for them, not you ungrateful pricks that went down here, glory seeking."

Ron shouted, "We came down here for my sister!"

Hermione nodded, "Yes, but you brought a crap teacher, a broken wand, Longbottom, while is great in Herbology, decent in Transfiguration and Charms, is crap at defense and the pompous ass who thinks it's wise to insult the king of the Acromantula colony. Very helpful bunch you would be."

Neville, red faced said, "And what did Daniels do?"

Hermione cut him off before he could say anything else, "He made sure that I would get the professors, so that they could do something. He followed you so you wouldn't do something stupid and get yourselves killed. Trust me when I say, Harry despises Chris. But Chris is a symbol to the sheep of Magical Britain and he isn't cruel enough to let the symbol kill himself because of a superiority complex."

McGonagall said, "ENOUGH! We aren't here to argue. We ar-"

She was cut off by a flash of light, Gwen appeared with Ginny and Luna, both tied up and gagged.

Hermione quickly cut the ropes and asked, "Is Harry alright?"

Luna nodded with tears going down her cheeks but a smile on her face, "He's fine. He said to tell you that he will be done shortly."

A few minutes after Luna and Ginny arriving, Gwen flashed in again, this time with an unconscious Chris Potter. Everyone could see that Gwen wasn't happy with the boy. She had flashed in with him, carrying him from his hair. She dropped him roughly on the ground and landed on Hermione's shoulder.

Hermione cooed, "How's Harry, Gwen?"

The bird trilled with both sorrow and hope. A few minutes later and she flashed away again. This time, she brought back Zacharias Smith. He was unconscious and pale. Madam Pomfrey went to him immediately.

Ginny said, "Harry said something about him being possessed or something."

Gwen trilled and Hermione said, "Madam Pomfrey, Gwen offered to take you to the Hospital wing with him. She'll come back for everyone else."

Poppy nodded and she flashed away. When she did, Chris started to stir, then shot up.

"Bloody Hell that was a big snake!"

The other adults gasped in horrific comprehension at what his words meant.

James said, "What do you mean son? How did you see it and still live?"

Chris responded, "That idiot pushed me down when it was coming out, I only saw the shadow. I was getting ready to kill it when he pushed me out of the way."

Hermione saw red, "That idiot saved your life you ungrateful jackass! If you had looked it in it's eyes, you would have died!"

Chris gulped at the venom in her voice.

Lily asked, "Then how will Harry be able to get back to safety?"

Hermione answered, still glaring at Chris, "A friend at MIT in America made him some new contacts. It's new in technomancy. They help correct his vision over time and they protect against all magic directed at the eyes. Harry thinks that it will work against the Basilisk. If nothing else, they would just cause him to be petrified."

Lily asked, "He THINKS?"

Hermione snapped, "YES. He didn't know but thought that they might. He would rather than try to help Luna and Ginny and risk petrification than sit around like the rest of the castle, hoping that some miracle would happen!"

McGonagall sighed, "He should have been in Gryffindor."

Hermione responded, "No offense to you or your house professor, but Harry was offered Gryffindor, just as I was. We turned it down. He, because he already knew Chris and the other two and knew they would give him a hard time and just didn't want to deal with them. Me, because Harry and I spoke on the train and I saw the way Chris and his friends were acting before the sorting and I knew that they would give me a hard time for hanging out with Harry. I asked for Ravenclaw because it seemed like the best fit. Hufflepuff was my next choice because I doubt the house of Loyalty would have liked me having loyalty to others above my own house mates but it was still better than the last two. Slytherin was out because of their narrow mindedness and penchant for bullying and hatred toward anyone who isn't related to everyone else in the house, i.e. Purebloods. They tolerate halfbloods but that's it. Harry followed me into Ravenclaw for much of the same reasons."

Snape snarled at the insult to his house. Chris, Ron and Neville looked slightly insulted that Harry or Hermione could have been in their house.

Hermione continued, "I mean, we have friends in Slytherin; Daphne, Tracy and Blaise, Gryffindor; Ginny and the twins. Those three have turned the rest of the house against us by saying that Harry is dark. Hufflepuff hasn't made an effort to befriend us and scurry away from Harry when he comes near them. The whole castle thinks that Harry is some dark wizard because he is a parselmouth. Personally, the only thing that proves is that he can kiss really well." she sighed and smiled slightly, "He has made it abundantly clear that he likes mundanes more than British Magicals. His girlfriend is a first generation and as much as he hates to call her it, Lily, his mother, is a first generation as well."

When she was done, she ignored the stares and waited for Gwen. When the bird flashed in, she took the Weasley's. Then she came back for the Potters, Black and Lupin. Then she took Snape and Sprout. Flitwick and McGonagall chose to stay with Hermione to wait for Harry. A few minutes later, Gwen flashed in with a weary Harry Daniels, his left arm, his wand held loosely in his hand, held limply at his side, his right, holding a sword and what looked like a black book under his right arm.

He said weakly, "Hey Hermione. Fancy seeing you here. I'm going to need to sit down now."

With that, he started to collapse. Hermione hurried to him and caught him. Afterward, Gwen flashed the four of them to the Hospital wing.

_POV Change. - Back to Harry_

Harry watched Hermione go off to get help, then turned and walked forward. He slowly made his way to the outer chamber, but when he heard shouting, he started to run. He entered the cavern to see Ron and Neville fighting for a wand against Lockhart. He knew what was going to happen, seconds before it did. He watched in slow motion as Lockhart has his hand around it and started to cast a memory charm. He felt the magic in the wand building up and protected himself from the explosion as it erupted.

When the rocks started to fall, he dove at Chris, pushing him out of the way. He felt a boulder fall on his foot and felt the bone breaking. He let out a hiss of pain, but quickly threw a numbing charm on his foot. He realized that if he hadn't pushed Chris out of the way, it would have hit him right on the head He quickly pulled Chris out of the way.

Chris said loudly, "What are you doing here!"

Harry rolled his, "Saving your life you idiot!"

Chris belligerently said, "I don't need your help. I'm the Boy-Who-Lived! I'm going to kill the beast and save everyone. Then more people will adore me."

Harry snorted, "Yeah whatever. And what exactly are you going to do against the beast? Do you even know what it is?"

Chris sneered, "Some kind of giant snake. A basilisd or something."

Harry shook his head_ How can I be related to this moron? It's insulting!_

They assured Ron and Neville that they were alright, well, Chris said he was fine but Harry had mucked up his plan.

Ron yelled insults and said, "If you messed up his plan and my sister gets killed, I'll kill you myself!".

Harry rolled his eyes, "There is help on it's way. We should sit here and wait for the professors."

Chris sneered, "What's wrong Daniels? Scared?"

Harry narrowed his eyes at Chris and said coldly, "No. I'm just not stupid. Believe me, Luna is in there and she is more family to me than your screwed up family is or ever was."

Chris said, "So you're just going to leave her in there and stay out here and-".

Harry took a step closer to Chris, his eyes glowing green, "I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you, Christopher."

Chris was buffeted by the magic rolling off Harry. He was slightly scared but didn't show it.

He sneered, "Well, I'm going. You can stay out here if you want."

Harry sighed and followed after Chris. When they got to the door, Chris opened it and they walked inside. They saw Zacharias Smith laying on the floor, unconscious and Luna and Ginny tied up in front of the wall.

Harry immediately ran towards Luna and Ginny.

He gently undid the gag in their mouths and asked, "Luna, Ginny, are you ok? What happened?"

Luna said, "We were walking down a corridor and all of a sudden, we saw him walking down the same one. His eyes were red and his magic looked funny."

Harry nodded, "It's okay. You're safe now. "

Chris went over to Zacharias and unkindly, nudged his head with his foot.

All of a sudden, a voice startled them all, "He's not dead."

Chris whirled around and said, "Tom! What are you doing here?"

Luna whispered to Harry, "He doesn't look right Harry. He feels wrong."

Harry nodded, he could feel the disgusting magic permeating the air. Ginny started to shake. Harry realized that the memory block must have come down and she remembered Tom.

He said, "Ginny, remember the exercises I taught you? Go through them and lock the memories away."

Ginny immediately went into a trance. After a few minutes she opened her eyes and nodded her thanks.

Meanwhile, Chris was arguing with the stranger.

He said, "You don't understand Tom! There is a Basilisg or something. We need to get him out of here. Help us out!"

Tom sneered and said, "I'm sorry, but I can't do that. I need him to stay where he is."

All of a sudden, Chris realized that he had dropped his wand in his surprise to see Tom. He looked around for it and saw that Tom had it."

He reached for it, "Give me my wand Tom."

Tom simply said, "You won't be needing it."

Harry sighed, "Give it a rest Chris. It's obvious that Tom is the bad guy."

Chris sneered, "What are you talking about! Tom is the one that turned Hagrid in. He was wrong but he tried to do his best."

Tom started chuckling, "How is it that a buffoon like you killed the greatest Sorcerer in the world?"

Harry realizing that the girls weren't safe called Gwen.

He told Luna, "Tell Hermione that I'm fine and I'll see her soon."

Luna nodded and he kissed her forehead and hugged Ginny, then sent them with Gwen.

When Chris saw them flash away he demanded, "Why did you send them? Call that bird back and get us out of here!"

Harry sneered, "They were tied up and terrified, surely the 'Great Boy-Who-Lived' would make sure they were safe first?"

Chris flushed. Tom taunted them for a bit longer, then Fawkes flashed in with an old hat.

Tom laughed, "That is what the old man sent to help you? A songbird and an old hat? You're no match for Lord Voldemort!"

Chris was confused, "What are you talking about? You-Know-Who was after your time!"

Tom smiled cruelly, No, Voldemort is my past, present and future." He then took Chris' wand and wrote out his name in fiery letters. Then swiped his wand downwards. The letters rearranged themselves to spell "I Am Lord Voldemort"

Chris paled and started yelling insults at Fawkes and didn't hear Tom call the basilisk. When he heard the rock sliding away, he turned to look at the origin of the sound.

Harry saw this and yelled, "Close your eyes you idiot!" then tackled him to the ground.

They both watched as Fawkes attacked the eyes of the giant snake. When Chris realized the size, he promptly fainted. Harry sighed and called Gwen to come get the "brave" Gryffindor. When he was gone. Harry quickly took stock. He used mage sight to see the line of magic, leaving Zacharias, going to the diary in his hand, then going to Tom. He quickly started to unravel the magic tying the diary to Zacharias.

While he was working, he didn't see the giant snake's tail come barreling towards him. He saw a second too late. He felt the breath leave his lungs and a few ribs break. When he hit the wall, the stone cracked under the impact. He felt his left shoulder break in multiple places. He cried out in pain but fought to stay conscious. He threw a numbing charm on the broken bones and stood up.

He glared at the huge snake, "Damn illusions. I'm too damn good at them for my own good."

He swiped his right hand at the snake and it disappeared. Tom was stunned.

Harry shot him a pained smirk, "Sorry to disappoint. But I killed the Basilisk weeks ago. I'm also very angry with you, so is Sal. You tortured that poor animal into insanity just because you were mad that Sal thought you were a bit too homicidal for his taste. You knew that she wouldn't attack you because you were an heir and you took advantage of that! You're a coward! A coward who has mummy and daddy issues."

Tom snarled, "You have no idea what I've been through!"

Harry snorted, "What? You were picked on in the orphanage? Maybe if you had been less creepy, then you would have gotten along with the other kids. Me, I was disowned by my family because they liked my brother more than me. Your mum died giving birth to you and your dad left after she confessed to giving him love potions. To top it off, you are just contributing to the bigotry that you suffered in school."

Tom sneered, "Lord Voldemort has no need for family! Only the strong survive, there is only power and-"

Harry yawned, he knew that he needed to keep the idiot occupied and distracted long enough to unravel the magic connecting Zacharias to the diary.

He said, "Please. If I didn't already know you were a coward, the made up name would be the only clue I would need, 'Flight from Death' really? And the fact that you put 'Lord' in front of it, just goes to show that you are the 'Lord' of cowards. Though, I can't really expect anything else. After all, your uncle was also your cousin, your grandfather was also your uncle and your grandmother was your aunt. The Gaunt family were so inbred that their family tree was just one big ball of mess. A ball of yarn would be easier to unravel."

As he finished, there was a loud _SNAP!_ and Harry cut the connection from the Hufflepuff to the diary. He quickly tied off the free magic and created a loop, connecting the magic of the diary to itself, so it was self powering. Gwen quickly flashed in and took the Hufflepuff away to safety. Tom screamed his anger out. He was now stuck at just beyond corporeal existence.

Harry cheekily pointed out, "You have some anger issues, you should get some help."

Tom sneered and took Chris' wand.

Harry chuckled, "I should tell you one thing that you don't know."

Tom said, "And what is that?"

Harry smirked, "It wasn't Chris that destroyed you. It was me."

With that Tom launched a volley of spells at the Ravenclaw. Harry simply jumped and dodged out of the way of the spells. He knew that if he kept it up, Tom would use up all of the magic sustaining his form. This went on for another ten minutes. Harry had been hit with a few cutting curses but nothing major. At last, Harry could feel Tom nearly out of magic.

Tom snarled and said, "Let's see you dodge this!"

With that, he threw a killing curse at Harry. He was shocked when Harry simply gestured with his hand and redirected the curse back at Tom. His form was solid enough for him to be knocked back by the curse but that was all. Then Tom realized what Harry had done. He snarled at Harry and then faded away.

Harry approached the diary carefully. Then made an exact duplicate of the book. Copied some of the less evil and corrupting magical auras onto it and banished the real diary to Sal's office for him to take back later. Harry then took the sword, he recognized that it was Gryffindor's sword, and stabbed the fake diary. He watched as one of the curses he copied made some of the ink spray out of the little book.

He called Gwen and had her take him to Hermione. He appeared in the outer chamber and saw McGonagall, Flitwick and Hermione.

He smiled weakly at her and said, "Hey Hermione. Fancy seeing you here. I'm going to need to sit down now."

With that, he felt himself falling. Hermione caught him and they were all transported to the Hospital Wing. When Madam Pomfrey saw him, she immediately went to him. Harry saw that Luna and Ginny were still shaking and Zacharias was still unconscious and very pale.

He said, "No. I'm fine enough for now. Take care of them."

Madam Pomfrey started to disagree when Harry yelled, "TAKE CARE OF THEM! I'm fine!"

His shout, startled everyone else and Madam Pomfrey tutted and gave him a reproachful look, but did what he asked. A few minutes more and a few calming draughts for everyone and she came back over to him.

"Can I take care of you now Mr. Daniels?"

Harry shrugged and winced in pain from his broken shoulder. He knew he would heal but it would take a bit longer. Madam Pomfrey waved her wand and gasped in shock, drawing the attention of everyone in the Hospital Wing.

"Mr. Daniels, you are most certainly not fine! I'm amazed you're still conscious!"

Lily asked, "What's wrong with him?"

Madam Pomfrey looked at Harry who, again shrugged and winced, muttering, "Gotta stop doing that!"

The matron said, "He has a shattered left shoulder, a fractured clavicle, three broken ribs, one of which punctured a lung, a crushed left foot and severe bruising on his left side."

At this, everyone in the Hospital Wing, minus Harry and Hermione gasped and Lily came over to him, "What happened!"

Harry smirked, "Ehh, it's been a rough day. I'll be fine a bit."

Hermione laughed and held his hand.

Madam Pomfrey said sternly, "You most certainly not fine. You will be in here for at least a few days mending the bones."

Harry shook his head, "No I won't, check me again."

Madam Pomfrey did as asked and had a puzzled look on her face.

She ran the tests again and said, "How is that possible?"

James asked, "How is what possible?"

Poppy stared at Harry and said, "He is already healing and should be completely healed in a few hours."

At the questioning stares, Harry was happy that he and Hermione had come up with a cover story.

He explained, "I have Tears of a Shadow Phoenix in my blood. I heal faster than others. Normal phoenix tears simply heal the wound they come in contact with, Shadow Phoenix tears stay in the blood and become part of the body."

Sirius asked, "Why isn't this known?"

Harry said, "Because, if it was, people would hunt down the shadow phoenixes and force the tears from them. The tears have to be freely given, Gwen was nice enough to provide them. I'm immune from most poisons and I heal at an accelerated rate. So, Madam Pomfrey, I really am fine"

Lily asked, "But how were you still conscious?"

Harry shrugged, only wincing slightly, "Liberal use of numbing charms"

A few minutes later, Dumbledore came rushing in and went straight for Chris and asked what happened. When he was told by the adult Potters that it was Harry, he turned and looked at him hard.

Harry felt a slight probe and said, "Dumbledore, I thought you were smarter than that. I would stop trying to get into my mind before my patience run out and thanks to the Basilisk and boy wonder over there, I don't have much left. I would hate for you to end up like Snape last Christmas."

Lily, McGonagall, Ginny, Luna and her parents all scowled at Dumbledore as he pulled out of Harry's mind.

He said, "I apologize. I was merely trying to ascertain what happened down in the chamber."

Harry snorted, "No you weren't. If you had, you would have just asked. And also, I find it odd that you turn up just after we are done in the chamber, just like last year, when you showed up, just after Voldemort was gone."

Dumbledore asked sharply, "How do you know about that?"

Harry smirked, "That's my secret old man. Now, do you wish to know what happened or not?"

Dumbledore nodded and so Harry told them what happened. At the times that Chris was an ass, he was scowled at by Lily, Ginny, Luna, the adult Lovegoods, Mr. Weasley and frowned at by the Marauders and Longbottoms.

Harry finished the slightly altered story by saying that he banished the sword through the snake's head. Then felt powerful magic in the chamber and watched as the body of the snake burn from the inside out. He also said that he stabbed the diary with the sword and then sent Zacharias to them. The Basilisk attacked him afterwards. He left out the parts of the duel and the illusion.

After he was done Dumbledore thanked him for saving the three students but told him that next time he should get a professor. Neville, Ron and Chris told him "thanks" and showed him some grudging respect, Ron and Neville more than Chris.

Harry scoffed and said, "Well, sir, when you have fifty years to figure out what took two second years and a first year, a few months to, I think it's safe to say that we were better off with the way things happened. Now if you're done with your guilt trip, leave me alone. Even if you are not Headmaster, you have no reason to talk with me. If you were reinstated, then the Charter is back in effect."

The adults were shocked at the disrespect he showed Dumbledore, but the staff knew that Albus pushed him the wrong way and the Lovegoods knew about his relationship with the old man. A few minutes later, Lucius Malfoy comes walking in, with a small, terrified house elf following him.

Chris says, "Dobby! You're the Malfoy house elf! I knew you were trying to kill me!"

Lucius sneers and hits Dobby with his cane.

"I heard that you were back Dumbledore. Why!"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "Once three students were taken, the other governors saw fit to call me back."

Lucius sneers, "Ridiculous fools!"

Dumbledore continued, "Curiously, they were under the impression that if they hadn't signed the petition to have me removed, you would have cursed their families."

Lucius sneered, "Lies! I did no such thing. I find it ridiculous that you were called back simply because these... children were foolish enough to go looking fo-"

Harry snapped, "LUCIUS! I've had a bad day and am in no mood to deal with your crap! Just because you were stupid enough to put the diary in Ginny's cauldron at Flourish and Blotts and then get it destroyed, does not mean that we need to hear you. Just deal with the fact that you let one of your old master's items get destroyed and move on. I'm tired and in no mood for banter. Just own up to your cowardly mistake and leave us alone." With this, he took the destroyed diary and chucked it at Lucius' head.

There was utter silence in the hospital wing, Harry looked around and said, "What? I told you I was out of patience!"

Lucius snarled and threw the diary at Dobby, "Come Dobby! We're leaving."

Harry snickered, "I wouldn't have done that Lucy. Dobby, take a look inside."

Before Lucius could do anything, Dobby opened the diary to find a sock. Lucius turned to Harry with fury on his face and to add insult to injury, Harry smirked and wiggled his bare toes at Lucy.

Dobby jumped up and down with a smile on his face, "Dobby is free!"

Lucius snarls and pulls out his wand casts "**Avada Kedavra**" at Harry before anyone could react.

Harry flicked his wand and conjured a slab of marble and the spell impacts it, cracking it, but nothing more.

Harry coldly said, "That was a mistake."

He then pushed his hand towards the blond and he was sent flying into the ancient stone walls with enough force to crack it. Harry stood up and walked towards him.

"You know, I've noticed something, Riddle has a temper, from what I remember Pettigrew had a jealousy streak a mile wide and from what I learned reading old newspapers, the other Death Suckers had issues. Most centered around those two; jealousy and anger. I think that you have both. I think that you have anger issues because your an ass and have a severe superiority complex and I think you have jealousy issues because you were a crap student and are a crap wizard. The only spells that you are able to cast easily are the unforgivables and that is because they can't be stopped. Well, let me make a few things clear."

"You are inferior. Just because your family tree is more tangled up than headphones left in a pocket for a few minutes, doesn't mean you are better than anyone else. If you weren't so stupid, you might learn a thing or two about the muggle study of genetics. To marry a close family relative, messes up the kid. In magicals, it's different. With us, it turns out squibs. In mundanes, it would turn out kids with genetic defects that would make it hard for them to live, if they lived at all. Hermione is more powerful than you are and she is a muggleborn. I am more powerful than you are and I am a halfblood. And to top it off, we are only second years."

As Harry was talking, he slowly brought his hand into a fist, and Lucius found it continually hard to breath and he was pushed more into the stone, making it crack more. Harry's eyes started to glow slightly and he let some of his aura come out.

Harry continued, "Now, you were a crap student because you were lazy. Like your son, you think you are entitled to something simply because of your blood. We covered that part. The only thing you are entitled to is what you earn for yourself. Hell, the only reason you were even in Slytherin is because you have no bravery for Gryffindor, you are only loyal to those that can get you what you want. The minute they stop being useful, you turn on them. You aren't smart enough for Ravenclaw so Slytherin was all that was left."

He looked over at the entranced professors, "Professor McGonagall, take no offense to this. You three" he pointed at a terrified Gryffindor trio, "I don't care what you think of this."

He turned back to Lucius, "Personally, I don't think any of the Death eaters should be in Slytherin. Sure you all have ambition in spades, but no drive to get it. You'd rather lie, cheat, threaten and murder to get what you want. I think that you should have been in Gryffindor." at the outraged looks he got, he rolled his eyes, "I mean come on! To threaten and have the whole population of Magical Britain against you, that has to take some guts. Your son definitely should have been a Gryffindor. He has three quarters of the school ready to kill him for his stupid mouth. The only reason that you all weren't sorted into Gryffindor was that it was and is stupidity that is the reason you do this. Not bravery. It is stupidity and the inability of your son that will get him in trouble one day. It is stupidity that got you in trouble with me."

"Now I like Slytherins. True Slytherins are great to talk with. Daphne, Tracy, Blaise, they are true Slytherins. They are cunning enough to realize that the rest of their house are idiots and that the whole school is against them. Next to Ravenclaws, they are the best conversationalist. The only sad part is that because they are shunned, they turn into the idiots that they revile at first."

He pulled his hand back and Lucius floated forward slightly, then Harry thrust his hand forward, slamming the Blond once more, back into the wall.

"Now. I am done with you. I hope your stay in Azkaban is nice. And remember, if you are thinking of bribing your way out of this, I have a lot more money than you and friends in high places. If for some reason the corrupt institution we call a government lets you free. I wouldn't expect you to survive long. I don't like you. You put me and my friends at risk, so I will make sure you burn. Got it?"

When Lucius didn't respond, Harry's hand tightened slightly. Lucius nodded as much as he could. Harry simply let his hand drop and Lucius was released and slid to the floor.

Harry turned to Dobby, "Hey, I was wondering if you would like to work for me?"

Dobby looked at him, then at his old master and nodded slightly.

Harry smirked, "Don't worry. I just act like a tough guy to intimidate people. But I have to warn you. If you work for me, you are not to punish yourself, you will be paid 13 sickles a week. That is approximately minimum wage in the States. You also have 2 days off a week. All my other elves get this. Those are my terms. You don't have to use the money, you could simply put it in a vault and never touch it again and on your days off, you can do whatever you want and that includes helping the other elves if you want."

Dobby thought of the terms and nodded, "Dobby accepts!"

Harry smiled, then called out, "Krissy!"

A small female elf appeared and Harry told her, "Krissy, this is Dobby. He's new so could you help him out? Get him a uniform too and get help in de-programing him."

Krissy nodded, hugged Harry and Hermione, then popped away with Dobby.

Hermione asked, "De-programing?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah. It helps them get over the ingrained training that they have to punish themselves and stop calling me 'master'. It also improves their speech."

Dumbledore cleared his throat, "Umm. Mr. Daniels. How exactly were you able to do all that?

Harry winked at Hermione and rolled up his sleeve, "Slide of hand. I had my wand strapped wrist and just used it that way. It gives the illusion of wandless magic. It's always fun to see peoples' faces when they think that a kid is able to do that."

He laughed along with Luna, Ginny and Hermione.

Harry looked over at Lucius, who was unconscious, "Uhh, I'm a bit vindictive so would someone make sure he doesn't die? I think Azkaban is much better than simply letting him off easy."

Madam Pomfrey bustled over to him and scanned him, "Mr. Daniels, I would like it if you refrained from doing that again. He has tiny fractures in almost every bone in his body and a mild concussion and some slight soft tissue damage throughout his body."

Harry smirked, "Nah, he got off easy. I threw up a slight cushioning charm before he hit the wall. Now, can you patch him so that one of the four aurors that stood still while he tried to curse me, can take him away? Just mix some skelegrow with some tears from Fawkes" The scarlet bird nodded and flew to Madam Pomfrey and cried in a vial.

Dumbledore said, "Do you have no remorse? You nearly killed a man."

Harry turned to look at him, "No I don't. And I'll tell you why. He was on his second chance. I'm all for giving second chances, but you screw up that second time and your ass should get everything that it has coming. He tried to kill me, while you sat there and watched. Now you're trying to make me feel guilty? Piss off old man, I'm done today. That was me irritated with someone. You don't want to see me angry at someone. The last person to see that, well, lets just say that, that particular Goblin doesn't want to spar with me anymore."

Dumbledore tried to say something but Harry looked sharply at him, his eyes glowing and his aura, a slight green and gold light surrounding him, "I said, I am done."

Luna said, "I would listen to him sir. He has many secrets and you are very close to learning some of them the hard way. Lucius did and now look at him."

Dumbledore looked sharply at her, then at Harry and Hermione. He noticed Hermione's eyes glowing slightly with a golden glow. He backed off, but he felt that he finally knew the answer that had plagued him, though he was still confused slightly. Chris had still beaten Voldemort the year before, maybe Harry was just powerful and 'the power he knows not' would manifest in Chris later on. Just thinking about it all gave him a headache. The only thing he knew was that he needed to keep a very close eye on Harry Daniels.

The rest of the adults and students in the Hospital Wing were amazed and some were slightly afraid of Harry's display of power. The three Gryffindors vowed not to get on his bad side. Though Chris still thought that he was more powerful and angry that Harry ran away instead of giving him that power. He thought that the aura around Harry was just a trick that he did. However, he was smart enough not to actively antagonize him.

Lily was proud of Harry and the beliefs that he had. James was confused, he still thought that Harry should've been with them, but at the same time, he knew they couldn't force him to go with them. He also wondered where he got all that power. Sirius and Remus were amazed at the display and happy that Lucius got what was coming to him. Frank and Alice Longbottom were just glad that Neville was safe. They wondered about Harry and what he did to Lucius but were happy everyone got out safe. The Weasley parents were glad that their daughter was safe and grateful to Harry for saving her.

Harry and Hermione ignored everyone else and simply sat with each other. They didn't talk much, but stared at each other.

Lily asked what they were doing, Luna said, "They are both master Occlumense. Over the summer, they met with Harry's Ms. Cerina. She taught them how to create a mental link. They can talk to each other in their minds, though they don't even need that. They can communicate without it."

Harry smirked, "No we don't but it makes it easier when we need to say something complex and keep it from people who don't need to know."

Lily asked, "How does it work?"

Harry thought for a moment, "Think of a lock in a door. Our shields are like the door, once we 'knock' on the door, we can extend the 'key hole' and we can enter each others minds by 'turning' the 'key'. It can't be picked because part of the 'key' is a magical signature. It allows us to share thoughts and conversations. The only drawback is it takes a bit of concentration until it becomes second nature."

The two Ravenclaws thought this story would be better than saying they know an advanced form of Legilimency that can penetrate Occlumency shields and read surface thoughts. They sat talking a bit more, Harry explained a bit about what he had learned to Lily. He thought he would throw her a bone because she hadn't bugged him at all for most of the year.

The following day, news of Lucius' arrest and Harry's defeat of Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk was on the front page of the _Daily Prophet_. Someone had sent their memories of the meeting to the paper and the article covered everything. Even Lucius' use of the killing curse on Harry was included. The part where Harry pinned him to the wall and the one-sided conversation they had was in the paper too.

More than a few Slytherins were angered by his comments and a few Gryffindors were as well, but some of the smarter ones explained it to them in a way that made sense to them, even if they didn't like it. All of the angered Slytherins were children of Death Eaters so Harry didn't care what they thought.

During breakfast, Draco Malfoy stormed over to the Ravenclaw table. Before he got within five feet of Harry, he was stopped by an golden iridescent shield.

Harry said, "Can I help you Draco?"

Malfoy snarled, "I'll get you Daniels. I won't let you get away with what you did to my father!"

Harry's expression turned cold, "No. Draco you won't. Your father was stupid enough to attack the Head of multiple Ancient and Noble families. Even if his curse had landed, he would have been arrested immediately. There were four aurors in the same room and the chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. He's lucky I didn't do more. I would have been well within my rights to do just that."

As he finished, his eyes glowed green again and those around him could feel the magic rolling off of him.

Draco snarled, "It's your fault! If you had-"

Harry cut in, "If he had learned to keep his anger in check, he would have never been in the situation. If he hadn't angered so many people, he wouldn't have so many enemies. I did nothing. I merely told him to shut up and leave. When he irritated me, I shut him up myself. He pissed me off after I just got done killing a giant snake that can kill with a look. I wasn't in the mood to deal with him. He didn't take my warning, that wasn't my fault, it was his."

Malfoy snarled and pointed a finger at Hermione and Luna, "You better watch it Daniels. You hurt my family. I'll hurt yours next."

Harry simply snapped his fingers and there was a loud _Crack!_ Draco screamed in pain, holding his newly broken finger. He did it again and there was a second _Crack!_ and Draco's middle finger was broken

Harry stood up and got right in his face, "I warned your father about threatening my friends and family. This is your warning, one finger for each person you threatened. Next time, it won't be just your fingers. Now leave before I do something that you will regret."

Draco dashed out of the Great Hall, holding his hand. Harry sat down and Hermione rubbed his shoulder. The three Ravenclaws ignored the pale and frightened looks some were giving them.

After two minutes of silence Harry sighed, "Look, to those of you who seem to be under the impression that I am a Dark Lord in training. If I were dark, would a phoenix bond with me? Would I be able to call another phoenix to aid me if I needed it? The answer is no. I may be mean, but I am only mean to those who would harm my family. Otherwise, I am perfectly friendly as many Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins could attest to. Sadly because of some internal influence I only have three friends in Gryffindor, the Weasley twins and their sister, Ginny. Now can you all drop your belief that I am a dark lord in training?"

After a few moments of silence, Harry sighed.

Turning to Dumbledore, "Headmaster, you know a thing or two about phoenixes. If a person was dark, or showed dark tendencies, would a Royal Phoenix come to them if the person called for it?"

Dumbledore cleared his throat, "No. A royal phoenix is the purest creature there is. They cannot be tricked or coerced into anything or by anyone they perceive as evil."

Harry nodded, "Thank you. Now for the proof that I am not a dark wizard."

He called out, "Malcolm!"

All of a sudden, there was a flash of every color imaginable. A large golden bird appeared, it was twice the size of Fawkes and only slightly larger than Gwen. It would easily come up to Harry's knee when standing. The light reflected off of its feathers and the reflections were the colors of the rainbows. Oddly, the bird had a bucket hanging from its talons.

Most of the Ravenclaws heard Harry mutter, "Crap..."

Just then, the bird tilted the bucket over and the water and what looked like bits of chewed up fruit poured all over Harry. It got Hermione and Luna as well, but most of the water hit Harry.

Harry yelled, "Really! I haven't seen you in a year and a half and you have to do that? I thought we were past that you damn bird!"

The beautiful bird trilled in amusement, it filled the entire Great Hall with happiness. It felt like everyone was hit with an overpowered cheering charm.

Harry's voice cut through everything, "Oh I don't think so. Your little happy trick won't save you."

With that, he aimed his wand at the bird and cast "**Aguamenti!**". A stream of water hit the phoenix dead on and it trilled in amusement. To the shocked audience, the water turned to steam and the bird looked like it was truly ready to catch fire.

At the look from Hermione, Harry explained, "He likes the water. His phoenix flame steams it and it's like a sauna for him."

Hermione nodded. Malcolm landed on Harry's shoulder and nuzzled his cheek. Hermione slowly reached out her hand to the bird.

Malcolm looked at her, then turned to look Harry in the eye, a few seconds later, Harry blushed and said, "Shut up Malcolm." the phoenix trilled and Harry blushed some more and said, "Yes. Now will you shut up?"

The bird didn't seem to answer but turned back to Hermione and put his head directly on her hand.

Harry smirked, "He likes you Hermione. Though, he likes anyone who figures out the spot he likes rubbed the best."

The phoenix trilled at Harry and he scowled playfully, "Don't be a perv Malcolm. It's unbecoming of a Royal Phoenix. How was Hagrid?"

The beautiful bird trilled, and Harry said, "That happy huh? Well, I'm sure you got enough attention from him. If the way he treats Gwen is any indication."

Malcolm trilled and a flash of white flames signaled the arrival of Gwen.

A few minutes later Harry had a thought, "Malcolm, how is Master Jo?"

Malcolm let out a sad sound and Harry's eyes teared up sadly, "There's nothing you can do?"

The phoenix shook his head, Harry sighed, "Well, at least he lived a long and happy life. With you being his companion for nearly two hundred years."

Malcolm trilled in answer and Harry shook his head.

Hermione asked, "Who is Master Jo?"

Harry said, "He's a monk that lives in a temple in the Himalayas. I met him a few years ago. He's the one that taught me basic occlumency and helped me get over what happened with my old family. He's not doing too well so I want to visit him before he dies."

"You said that he had... Malcolm for nearly two hundred years? Exactly how old is he?" asked Padma, pausing at the odd name.

Harry smirked, "I don't know exactly. I just know that Malcolm came to him sometime in his seventies and they have been together for just 3 years shy of two hundred years. So, best estimate would be around three hundred years old. But the Grandmaster of the temple is somewhere near his three hundred and tenth birthday."

Those around him were amazed. Cho asked how they could live that long.

"They have a strict diet up there." Harry replied, "They exercise daily and live simple lives. I was there for what seemed like a year but it was actually about a month. Time doesn't matter in that place. Not really. When I talk about their age, I'm talking about relative age. It's hard to explain without being there. Luckily the defense of the temple is impenetrable. I won't say how, but if you aren't worthy or want to go there for selfish reasons, you won't be able to find it. The only reason that I went there is because I met with a monk, Master Jo, beforehand and he found me worthy. I had to make the hike up the mountain by myself though."

He patted the bird, "Tell them that I'll be there this summer and that I might bring a friend."

The phoenix looked towards Hermione and trilled in amusement, Harry rolled his eyes, "Just go you perv. Tell Master Jo that I'll be there soon."

The phoenix trilled and launched itself into the air, then flashed away in a brilliant display of colors.

The rest of the day was spent in awe of the encounter. Harry was questioned at length by a fascinated Professor Flitwick, Dumbledore and Potter. He explained that Malcolm formed a minor bond with him, enough to hear him and communicate with him, but not enough to form a full bond like he had with Gwen, one where they could share thoughts and emotions. The only way they could communicate was like the mind link he had with Hermione. The reason he understood what the trills meant was because he knew Malcolm well enough.

Hagrid showed up, later that day, and thanked Harry immensely. So much so, that Harry thought he might have cracked a rib. Hagrid was very happy to see Norberta. It turned out that the dragon he had hatched the year before, that he had named "Norbert" was female. He was also excited about meeting a royal phoenix.

The rest of the school year, the whole three weeks, was spent relaxing. Exams had been cancelled and the whole school just took the last three weeks of term as a long sigh of relief after such an eventful year. Though, at the leaving feast, the Shadows had one last big prank to pull.

Everyone was eating at the leaving feast and having a great time. In the morning everyone would get on the Hogwarts Express and return home for the summer. Halfway through dinner, the torches went out and the shadow people, that most were coming to both hate and enjoy, appeared.

"Hello Hogwarts. It's been an interesting year hasn't it? Well, we've decided that after such a year, some School unity was needed. Therefore, let us ask you a question? Where are the Staff rooms and the professors' offices?"

As soon as they asked, there was a gasp as everyone tried to remember where the mentioned rooms were. Even the staff were confused.

After a few moments, the Shadows said, "Don't worry. They will be returned to you in the morning. We just thought that there should be some unity between the staff and students. There are are comfy bed provided in each of the common rooms."

Dumbledore asked, "And how exactly do you know where the common rooms are and how to get in?"

The taller shadow person turned and looked at him, "That is for us to know and you to scratch your ostentatious beard trying to figure out." The entire hall could hear the smile as the shadow spoke.

With that, they disappeared and the Hall was back to normal. The students all looked around and talked about what happened. More than a few of them shot Harry and his small group looks full of both awe, mirth and some, those like Percy Weasley, with disgust that they would do that to a professor. Most of the staff took it in stride. Though a few, namely Snape and Dumbledore, threw glares at Harry and his friends.

As the feast was winding down, the shadowy figures came back, "Oh, yeah. One more thing." they pointed towards Snape and the hall watched in morbid fascination as his hair receded into his head, his skin turned completely white and his robes were transfigured into a white t-shirt with black horizontal lines and black overalls. When the transformation was complete, Snape went from an intimidating Potions Master, to a mime, complete with no voice and he acted out what he was trying to say. At the moment, he was pointed to Harry and was doing something with his hands that had most of the staff trying to block from view of the younger children. What made it all the more funnier was the look on his face; instead of the look of pure loathing one would expect, it was replaced with the classical angry face that one would see on a mime at a carnival.

Before they knew it, they were on the train, headed home. Harry was sharing a compartment with Hermione, Luna, Ginny, Daphne, Tracy and Blaise. To make room, Hermione was sitting on his lap. About halfway through the journey, the compartment door was thrown open and they were met with the faces of Chris, Ron and Neville.

Ron said angrily, "Ginny! What are you doing in here with those snakes?"

Harry drawled, "You know, it's common courtesy to knock on a door before entering. I mean do you do that at home? What if someone is using the bathroom and you just come barging in, be a bit embarrassing wouldn't it? Even worse if someone was just getting into or out of, the shower. The only thing worse would be if it was your mother or father." he had a thought and shivered, "Or both."

The group of seven laughed, while the three Gryffindors flushed, though Hermione slapped Harry upside the head. The Gryffindors started insulting Harry, so he just threw an invisible spell at their feet, then sent them flying out of the doorway and simply closed the door with a flick of his hand.

Daphne asked, "How are you able to do wandless magic?"

Harry chuckled, "For me it's easy. I've been doing it like that since I started using magic. You can do it too. Just talk with your magic. Find your core and merge with it. Once that's done, you sort of just want something to happen and your magic will react accordingly. It's a bit like talking with a friend, then working together to get something done. But I suggest that you all get wrist holsters for your wands. If anyone asks, just show your wand touching your hand and say that you just don't let anyone see your wand."

Ginny smirked, "That's what you did in the hospital wing."

Harry smirked, "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

The seven laughed but quieted down when they heard a slight knock on the door.

When Luna opened it, Zacharias Smith was standing there.

"Hey Harry, I just wanted to thank you for helping me down there. You didn't have to but you did. You're a good guy and I just wanted to say thanks."

Harry smiled, "No problem. And if you'll permit me to help you again." he pulled out a book from his bag and handed it to Zacharias.

At his questioning glance Harry explained, "It's called Occlumency. It's the art of ordering your mind. That book will teach you the basics. If you learn it, the memories and everything related to the experience with the diary won't bother you anymore."

The Hufflepuff looked skeptical and asked, "All from just reading a book?"

Harry said, "No, you have to do the work but it will allow you to lock away the memories within your mind. You'll still remember them, but you will have to consciously seek them out."

The Hufflepuff smiled in thanks. He stayed to talk a bit longer, but left a few minutes after that. Surprisingly Draco didn't show up to intimidate them at all.

Tracy explained, "He's terrified of you. So are most of the Death Eater children. They don't know how you broke Draco's fingers and don't want to chance pissing you off."

Harry smirked, "Ahh, it takes a lot to piss me off. That was me irritated."

Blaise snorted and drawled, "Yes, but when you do get pissed off, you're bloody scary as hell."

Harry smirked, "Why thank you for that compliment."

They all laughed at that and then settled down once more. Harry explained to everyone how to find and merge with their cores. Before they reached the platform in London, there were three flashes of light that came from the compartment, signalling that the other friends had found their cores. When they pulled into the station, there were things flying all over the compartment and not one wand in sight. When they left, Harry pulled Ginny to the side.

"I know that you won't be able to afford a holster so take this one. I got an extra the summer before my first year and found it the other day."

Ginny smiled and thanked him. She glanced at Hermione, who nodded, and kissed his cheek. She then went off to find her family.

Hermione asked, "So when do you think that they will find out?"

Harry shrugged, "Their families probably already know. We'll find out on the platform."

When they disembarked, they were swarmed with the families that were affected by the Basilisk.

Molly Weasley said, "We can't accept this, it's too much."

Harry shrugged, "Too late. I already set up the vaults. Anyone who was petrified by the Basilisk got five percent of the profits from it. The kids get G10,000 of the total put in a vault of their own"

Amos Diggory gasped, "G72,500 was just five percent!"

Harry nodded, "Yeah it was the biggest ever found. Filch got two percent because it attacked his familiar."

Harry and Hermione had decided to give the families affected a percentage. The goblins advised no more than five percent, so that is what they gave them. It still left both Harry and Hermione, each G565,500 so they were more than fine with the arrangement.

Once they made their way through the crowd and Harry being smothered by Molly Weasley's hug, they walked over to a pair of grinning dentists.

Hermione hugged them each, "Mum! Dad! Oh it's so good to see you again."

Lily walked over and said, "That was a nice thing you did Harry. You didn't have to give that money, it was legally yours."

Harry shrugged, "It didn't feel right keeping all of it. Besides, I gave half of what I got to Hermione because she came up with the plan anyway."

Lily was about to reply when they heard Chris whining about wanting to leave. All of a sudden, his shoes expanded and he tripped over his own feet. Looking at his shoes, everyone saw that they had become flippers used when swimming. Just he fell, there was a shout of surprise and people turned to look at Neville Longbottom. His shoes had grown skis, making it extremely hard to walk. As soon as that transformation ended, Ron Weasley let out a shout. His shoes had expanded and connected in the middle, when it ended, he was in a snowboard and he promptly lost his balance, fell on his ass and shouted, along with Neville and Chris, "DANIELS!"

Harry smirked cheekily at them, "It seems as though your shoes have been transfigured again."

He got venomous glances in return. The twins and Ginny were nearly in tears laughing at the sight. Even Lily had a small smile on her face.

"Have a good summer Harry. I'll see you in the Fall."

Harry smiled, _Finally she's getting it!_

"You too Lily. Have a good summer. Remember to have his shoes checked, whoever did that may have charmed them so that they cycle through each transfiguration and do so at completely random times. Though, anyone who could do that, probably hid the spells very well."

Lily smirked and walked towards her husband and son. Harry noticed Sirius and Remus off to the side, he nodded to them and gave them a slight smile. He decided to be be nice to them since they had been good most of the school year.

With that, he and the Grangers made their way back to London so they could go home and visit before Harry left for three weeks to see his friends.

**A/N - Okay, so I lied. I had this done way sooner than expected. But I felt I needed to get it up soon, so I spent the last two days working on it, neglecting my Math homework and studying for Psych. But hey, who needs math and Psych comes easy for me, that's why it's my major. **

**A/N 2 - I have decided that since Year 3 is going to be a bit harder to write, I'm going to write the first few chapters before posting them. Then I'll throw them up, this gives me a way to not kill myself with deadlines that I say I will meet, but find hard to do. I'm hoping to have the first three chapters or so done within the next two weeks. I don't do this to be cruel, but I have midterms coming up and one of my biggest pet peeves is authors who say that they will update and then are late by weeks. This way, I can write at the pace I did before I started posting my stories. I have the most basic of outlines for what I want to happen in Book 3 so any ideas will be helpful. I am having Pettigrew be the one who escaped from Azkaban. But I haven't quite got all the details worked out.**

**A/N 3 - I have been asked a few times if I got the name from SG1, the answer is no. I was trying to come up with a name that still had the J as his middle initial. I didn't want to change him to drastically. When I was thinking, I glanced up on my wall and saw a bottle of Jack Daniels. That is where I got the name. As for why they need to go to Hogwarts when they aren't learning much, they need to be there to maintain their rights as heirs of the Founders. Not to mention, even though he may dislike Chris, he will protect him simply because Chris is a symbol to Magical Britain. That and now that he has shown up again, he knows Dumbledore will try everything he can to keep him where he can keep an eye on him.  
**


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